Vigilante
by PseudonymPseudonym
Summary: College Sophomore Kara Danvers has three secrets: that her alien heritage grants her incredible superpowers, that she uses these gifts of strength and speed to protect her campus from nightly predators, and that she hates Lena Luthor with all of her heart. Supercorps Lena x Kara College AU
1. Chapter One

I found myself going out at night. Not going clubbing, or hanging out with friends, or really doing anything. I just liked being out on campus with no one else around. I liked being out in the cool air, laying down on the grass and looking up at the stars. I couldn't remember when I had begun my nightly excursions, or why. I just knew that I had started sneaking out last semester, always after my roommate had fallen asleep, and over Christmas break I had the worst time actually getting to sleep without ambling around campus first.

It was a cold night. I was wearing my Shuster U sweatshirt over a button up, and my hands were still freezing. I tugged my cardigan on over it, wrapping the sides of it over my chest. I didn't stop to relax on the grass under the manicured trees. Not tonight. I kept walking, to stay warm and to unwind in the dark, moonless night.

And I was glad that I did. Because as I walked down the path in between the library and Redwood Hall, I saw figures up ahead, below the streetlight. I slowed my pace.

There were three figures, two very tall, and both of them holding a brown paper bag in each hand. The third figure, the smallest figure, had their hands in their pockets and their shoulders slouched, like they did not want to be there. And judging from the way that the taller figures took looming steps towards them, they didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

"Come on man, have some," said the first tall figure, extending the hand that held the paper bag. "It's freaking delicious."

He didn't say freaking.

"That's okay," said the smaller guy. "I don't want any."

"Don't be such a coward." Yeah, he didn't say coward, but I did not like the misogynist word that he did use. Not at all. "You wouldn't be out here if you didn't want some."

The smaller guy gulped. "No," he said, and that was it.

Apparently, the two bigger guys didn't know what 'no' meant. "Chug it," said the second one, "or we'll chug it down your throat."

"No," he said again, louder this time.

No sooner had he said it then the first guy, the biggest one, grabbed him. The smaller guy struggled, but the guy easily pinned his hands behind his back. The second guy stepped forward, grabbing his head, poising the obscured bottle over his head.

"Stop!" I shouted before I knew what I was doing.

All three figures froze. In that brief moment, I saw the panic spread across the faces of the two attackers. And I saw the relief on the face of the smaller guy.

But again, it only lasted for a moment. Because then the second guy smiled.

"Why, you want some?"

"I want you to leave him alone."

All three guys were squinting in my direction, trying to figure out who I was, and why I should care what they were doing.

"And I want you to mind your own freaking business."

Again with that word.

The two big guys smiled as though they had just said the wittiest joke ever made.

"Just relax," said the first one. "We're just having some fun with our buddy."

"I'm not your buddy."

"Shut the heck up, man."

"Let him go," I said.

"Or what? You gonna make us?"

"If it comes to that."

The two guys looked at each other. Then they let go of the third guy. He backed up, looked between the two thugs, looked at me, then turned and ran. I didn't stop him.

"Step into the light," one of them ordered, "so we can see what kind of puny little--" again with that misogynist word--"we're dealing with here."

"I don't take orders. Especially from bullies."

That was the straw that broke them. They didn't wait for me to step into the light. Instead, they charged after me, into the darkness.

I did not move. I didn't want to throw the first blow. But I didn't have to worry about that.

The first guy found me, even with the darkness shrouding me. His fist collided with my face, and I heard the cracking of bone.

He screamed, so loudly and for so long that I was sure he was going to wake everyone on campus. I could see the blood flowing from his split knuckles.

The second guy was smarter. He used the beer bottle.

This time, I didn't sit back and just take it. I stopped his swing, catching the bottle in my hand. And with the smallest squeeze, it shattered under my grip.

He stared at the broken bottle, cursing in amazement.

I punched him.

Just a small jab, square in the ribs.

And he went soaring. He crashed into his friend, and they splattered on the ground.

I looked up, and saw the small guy racing toward us, the campus police officer in tow. Good. The police would take it from here.

But they couldn't find me. They couldn't find out who I was. What I was.

So I ran. And I didn't stop until I was back in my dorm, safe in bed, where no human could discover my secret.

My sneakers squeaked on the tile flooring of the library steps as I raced up them. I ignored the sound, intent on my mission. I had a half hour to spare before my first class, but I was paranoid, and the paranoia urged me forward.

I rounded the top of the steps and marched past the rows and rows of bookshelves. I looked at the scrap of notebook paper wrinkled in my hand, the anthology editor of my sought after textbook hurriedly scratched on. Wallace, Barbara.

I skidded into the V-Z shelves, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible, especially when I noticed someone else in the aisle. As if I were just casually browsing. As if I were just casually browsing textbooks, of all things.

My eyes landed on the textbook I was after, the literature anthology for my British Literature II class. I inched toward it, trying to move at a casual pace. Why I was trying to play this so cool, I wasn't sure. It just seemed like the right move.

I was so close. Wallace, Barbara's anthology loomed on the horizon. It was almost mine. Victory was mine.

But, it wasn't. Because as I reached for the textbook, another hand reached for it as well.

"Hey," I protested as the hand grabbed it, and by extent, my victory, off of the shelf.

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you after this one too?" The girl said.

"Yes," I said, pushing up my glasses. "As a matter of fact, I was. I need it for my class."

She made an apologetic face, but held the book tightly to her chest. "I'm sure the bookstore still has plenty of copies."

"They do," I said, forcing a smile. "It costs three hundred dollars. Three hundred and twenty-six dollars."

"Amazon, maybe?"

"My class is in a half hour." I checked my phone. "Twenty seven minutes. Amazon Prime doesn't work that quickly."

She brushed her dark hair over her shoulder. "Oh well. No one uses the textbook on the first day."

That was true. Still, I hated feeling unprepared.

The girl took a couple steps back. She smiled apologetically, but she was still backing away with my textbook. "Good luck. I hope you find one." And then she left.

I tooled around campus for a few minutes before I headed to Ellsworth Hall, where most of the english classes were located. I found the classroom, which was the same one where British Literature I had been located last semester.

The first row was filled. I pursed my lips together. I had read in an article on college success last summer that said the closer a student sat to the front of the classroom, the higher the grade they would have in the class. If there was one thing I liked more than feeling prepared, it was getting a high grade.

I sighed and resigned myself to the second row, next to the wall. I pulled my notebook and pencil pouch out of my backpack before I set it on the table, leaning agaisnt the wall.

From the front of the class, Ms. Steele gave me a smile and a nod. Ms. Steele was really cool. She was my favorite professor, and I wasn't sure if that was because this was my third semester in one of her classes, or if I continued to sign up for her courses because she was my favorite. It was a conundrum that I had pondered sporadically over Christmas break, but had not considered deeply enough to arrive upon an answer.

I smiled and nodded back to her.

"Alright everybody, let's get rolling," Ms. Steele said, as she did at the beginning of practically every class.

I opened my notebook to the first page as Ms. Steele began calling the roll.

"I'm only going to call the roll for the first few weeks, until I get used to your faces," she explained. "This is a small class anyway, so it shouldn't take too long."

Ms. Steele was right: it was a pretty small class. I glanced around the room, at the maybe ten other students, four of whom were taking up the front row. My eyes landed on the most mesmerizingly glossy hair I had ever seen, sitting in front and to the left of me. As the owner of the beautiful hair flipped it over her shoulder, I instantly recognized her from the library.

The textbook thief. My eyes narrowed on the purloined textbook resting on the table in front of her, perfectly aligned on top of her notebook.

I should have known that she would be in this class. I suppose I just assumed that she'd had the same class at a different time. But it did not matter, because here she was.

"Kara Danvers," Ms. Steele said, snapping me out of my brooding.

"Here." I raised my hand hurriedly.

She kept going down the list, calling out a Fish, and a Ford, and a Kingsley, and then "Lena Luthor."

"Present," said my textbook thief.

Lena Luthor? How did I know that name?

Wait. Luthor. The Luthor's? As in the Luthor Corps Luthors? She couldn't be a Luthor Corps Luthor. But I had heard that Lex was an alumni of Shuster University. Actually, I'd heard from my cousin Clark that they had been friends and had graduated in the same class. So could this particular Luthor be related?

She had to be. I was sure of it. The Luthors were filthy rich, and this girl possessed a self assurance that only money could groom.

This realization brought another one: if she was a Luthor, than she was filthy rich. And if she was filthy rich, then she took a free textbook away from someone who couldn't afford to buy one.

The injustice of it hit me in a wave. How dare she. She had just grabbed that textbook and walked away, leaving me scrambling for options.

I suddenly realized that I was squeezing my pencil. I could feel the plastic of the barrel cracking easily under my fingers. It would be so satisfying just to pop it in half, but I made myself set it down on the table. I didn't want to draw attention to myself, and I certainly didn't want anyone finding out because of such a stupid thing.

No. The Luthor girl wasn't worth it.

Still, that didn't stop me from ruminating on it all through class. And my next class. All the way up to lunch.

"You're frowning," Alex said when I sat down next to her in the cafeteria.

"Well, I'm irritated."

"About what?"

I explained the whole textbook-Luthor girl situation.

"That sucks."

"It so does. And now I'm stuck without a textbook and with a terrible grudge."

"Well, I'm sure you can rent one from Amazon." Alex checked her phone under the table.

"That's what the Luthor girl said." I took a bite of my sandwich. Alex's eyes were still on her screen. "What's so interesting on your phone?"

Alex brushed her hair out of her face. "I was just checking the time. Maggie's class ends at 12:25. She's going to meet me here for lunch."

I noticed for the first time that Alex's plate was empty. She must have been waiting here for quite a while already.

"Aww," I said. "You are such a good girlfriend."

She grinned. "I'm just glad that our lunch breaks kind of coincide this semester. I like spending time with her outside of class."

I took a sip of my root beer. I hated the fact that the cafeteria's soda fountain had root beer, my number one weakness. Well, maybe not my number one.

"Do you have a lot of classes with her this semester?" I asked.

"Only two. Criminology and substance abuse."

"Perks of dating someone in the same major as you."

"Yeah," she grinned, stealing a fry from my plate. "Just one of many."

Maggie approached our table then, setting her hand on Alex's shoulder. "Hey, Danvers," she said. "Both of you."

Alex looked up at her, her cheeks pinkening the way they always did whenever she saw Maggie. "How was your morning class?"

"Obnoxious. I'll tell you about it when I get back." Maggie stuck her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket and headed off to grab a tray.

"You two are so cute," I said. "It makes the rest of us feel bad."

"You don't feel like a third wheel, do you, Kara?"

"No, not a third wheel, exactly." I didn't feel left out. I was so happy for Alex and Maggie, but I secretly couldn't help wanting what they had. Not that I needed a relationship to be happy. I just wanted one.

"You're still doing okay after your break-up, right?"

I glanced around the cafeteria until my eyes landed on James. James Olsen. He was smiling at something that his best friend, Winn, had said. James had a dazzling smile. It was one of the things I had liked most about him.

"Yes, I'm fine. I was the one who broke it off, remember?"

"Do you regret it?"

"No." And that was the truth. I didn't regret breaking up with him. I regretted ever getting romantically involved with him in the first place.

Maggie set her tray down on the table. "Did you guys hear about what happened last night?"

"No," Alex said. "What happened?"

"Two guys were beat up on campus. The police aren't exactly sure why."

I adjusted my glasses, trying to appear casual. "Do you know any details about what happened?" I took another sip of my root beer.

"They released that one of the victims had a broken hand, almost as though he punched a brick wall." Maggie took a bite of her food, maintaining eye contact with me the whole time that she chewed.

I gulped.

"You wouldn't know anything about this, would you Kara?"

"What? Pfft. No. Why would you think that?"

Alex gave me a flat look. "Kara, what did you do?"

"Nothing." I leaned forward and whispered "I can explain. It was an accident."

A month or so after Maggie and Alex had started dating, Alex decided to come clean with her about my origins after I had hugged Maggie just a little too hard and bruised her arms. Of course, Alex asked me if it was alright before saying anything to her. Now, I was regretting giving my sister the go-ahead.

Alex shook her head after I told her. "I can't believe you did that."

"What was I supposed to do? Just let that poor guy get harassed?"

"No, you did the right thing," Maggie said. "But you have to be careful when it comes to vigilantism."

"And when it comes to revealing your powers. Just promise me that you won't seek out trouble again."

"I promise."


	2. Chapter Two

I ended up renting my textbook from Amazon. It was definitely the cheapest option, but it was also my only option. Still, it didn't come in time for my second British Literature class, so I was forced to turn to the Internet. A few quick Google searches showed me that almost all of the reading due this semester could be found online. And, fortunately for me, the syllabus listed the specific chapters instead of just page numbers, so I strolled into class that Thursday morning completely set.

I snagged a seat in the front row, even though that meant that I had to sit next to the Luthor girl. I tried to focus on preparing my notes for the lecture, but her textbook--my textbook--kept distracting me. I thought about saying something to her, but she was looking everywhere but at me.

A few other people straggled in. Some of them had notebooks, some of them had textbooks, but no one other than the Luthor girl had both. One girl didn't even wait for class to start before she began her nap.

"Let's get rolling," Ms. Steele said. "We're jumping right into 18th century literature with Ms. Wollstonecraft."

I smiled as I wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman at the top of my notes. I was excited about this discussion. I'd been meaning to read Vindication for a while, and I was glad that I had this class as an excuse to start it. Actually, I might use it as an excuse to read all of it, if I had time.

Ms. Steele began the class by talking about feminism and gender roles in the Victorian era. After a brief overview, she said, "what are some of the topics that Wollstonecraft addressed about women's subjugation?"

No one responded. Ms. Steele tapped the dry-erase marker against her hand.

I looked around, saw the one girl napping, saw another doodling anime characters in their notebook, and yet another watching something on their phone under the table. The Luthor girl kept her eyes fixed on the pen in her fingers.

So, I said "well, she wrote about expectations for women, such as what they were supposed to do with their lives and how they were supposed to behave while doing so."

"Good," she said, writing my answer on the board. "Talk about that a little bit."

I thought for a moment. "She pointed out the paradox that women faced. Well, faces, present tense. About how women were expected to do certain things with their lives--primarily, marrying a man and having children--and how they were supposed to be sweet and docile and polite while doing so."

She nodded as she added to my answer on the board. That was one of the things that I liked about Ms. Steele: she took everyone's answer seriously, thinking it over, elaborating on it.

"Any other ideas?"

There was another pause. I was about to speak again, when Lena said, "education."

Ms. Steele's face lit up. "Education. What specifically about it?"

"She described education as a tool. A tool that all men were automatically given, and one that a few women fought to have. She said that for the notion of gender equality to even be perceivable, women must be given the tools to think for themselves."

"I love that imagery so much," Ms. Steele said. "I think Wollstonecraft said it best: "no being can be called virtuous whose virtues did not derive from its own reason.'"

"Pop culture," I said, cutting a glance at Lena. "She wrote a lot about representation in popular culture, and how much Rousseau's novel Emile shaped how people viewed and treated women."

Ms. Steele wrote pop culture on the board. "Now here is a question that will open up a discussion: does pop culture really shape how people think, or is it merely a reflection of society?"

"Well, Wollstonecraft was obviously a reflection of the society in which she was raised," Lena said.

"How so?"

"Even though she was literally writing a vindication for the rights of women, she used a lot of misogynistic language. If she said some of these things today, then she would be called anti-feminist."

"But she's practically the grandmother of the feminist movement," I said. "And besides, she wasn't writing this for today. She was writing it for the Victorian era."

"Misogyny is misogyny, no matter the era. Vindication is still being studied today, therefore the problematic language that Wollstonecraft sometimes used to describe women is being ignored or even taken to heart just because it was written for another time."

"But she was writing it for her time," I countered. "It might be problematic, but she was only writing what she knew, so she couldn't possibly have the scope that we have today. Besides, Wollstonecraft did so many amazing things for women."

"But that does not negate the fact that she said many misogynistic things, such as saying that women are simple creatures who are only seeking matrimony instead of 'nobler' things, with few exceptions."

Ms. Steele held up a finger. "I think you guys are on to something. Do you think that Vindication is meant to be studied only in relation to the Victorian era, or do you think that because it is so important and has impacted history so much that it is completely valid to study it in a modern context?"

"Both," Lena and I said at the same time. We cut our eyes at each other, our gazes holding for only a moment.

"Interesting," Ms. Steele said. "Can you elaborate?"

"I mean, it's not a dichotomy," I said, shooting Lena another small look. "Not necessarily. You can't separate the two from each other, because both are true."

"Exactly," Lena murmured.

As I was leaving class, I heard someone in the classroom opposite this one say my name.

"Winn," I said.

He left the class with the rest of the students, shouldering his backpack on like a jacket. I took a step toward him so that we could talk more peacefully in the crowded hallway.

"It's been a while," he said.

I looked down at my shoes. I hadn't talked to Winn since I had broken up with James. It was just too awkward. I did miss him, though. I missed both of them.

"It really has. How is your semester so far?"

"Busy busy," he said. "Six classes and working backstage for this semester's production."

I hit his shoulder jokingly. "You should be on stage. You have one of the best voices I've ever heard. I'm not exaggerating."

Winn smiled shyly. "Thanks, but we're doing West Side Story next spring, so I'm waiting for that. I'm helping with costumes and lighting this semester."

"That's so great." I checked my phone. "Sorry to bail, but I have to get to my next class."

"Yeah, no problem."

"We should get together sometime," I said. "I mean it."

"Um...yeah, totally."

"You still have my number, right?"

Winn nodded.

"Great. Just let me know what time works for you. You can tell me all about the cool costumes you're designing." I headed off to my next class.

I laid in bed for two hours that night before I decided to go out anyway. My roommate had been asleep for hours, but I still found myself sneaking around as I tugged on my sneakers and stuck my phone in my pocket. Before I left, I remembered an old black hoodie that I had stolen from Alex over Christmas break. It was too big for me--really, it was too big for Alex--but it was comfy and warm. I told myself that that was the reason why I was wearing it as I tugged it over my head. Certainly had nothing to do with its dark color or the large hood that would most definitely obscure my identity.

I headed to my usual place, a big grassy patch that separated the dormitories. I considered climbing one of the trees, but decided against it. Instead, I sat down at the base of the tree and leaned against it.

I felt bad admitting it to myself, but I kind of hoped that I would overhear another...incident. Not that I wanted anything bad to happen to anyone. I just wanted to stop bad things from happening.

But I shouldn't wish for it, because I had promised Alex, and even if something did happen, I shouldn't do anything about it, and that would be so much worse.

Still, when I heard the sound of glass shattering across campus, I didn't hesitate to race over to the cafeteria. I was fast, but still, by the time I reached the building all I found was an empty window, the voices of the intruders echoing inside.

I stepped in through the window, pausing as I stood inside. After a moment, I floated into the air, just an inch or two above the ground. I found myself smiling. I hadn't flown in years, at my family's insistence. And until now, I had obeyed them.

I held my arms out behind me as I floated down the hallway. And I found myself wishing that I had been flying all this time.

The intruders were in the cafeteria. By the time I caught up to them, they had crossed the cafeteria and were attempting to break into the kitchen. Most likely to steal some food. Maybe just to vandalize. Possibly both.

I floated up behind them, watched as one person with long brown hair hacked at the lock with a crow bar. Neither of their two companions noticed me, not even when I landed behind them.

What should I say? I tried to think of something cool and snappy, but in the moment, nothing came to me. By then it was too late anyway, because the thief with the crowbar looked over their shoulder and saw me.

She screamed, and her two companions jumped around.

That was when I came up with a good one-liner:

"Hungry?"

None of them found it as amusing as I did. Oh well.

"Get out of here," said the one with the crowbar. How she even managed to bring a crowbar onto campus, I didn't know.

"You are aware that you have tripped an alarm and that security is on their way?"

"Yeah, and we'll be out of here before they come, no thanks to you." The third started hacking at the lock once again.

"Stop that," I commanded. "Before I make you."

Without warning, she spun around and swung at my head like it was a baseball. The crowbar bent around my skull. I barely felt it. I barely blinked.

The thief uttered a curse, her eyes wide. Her two companions, perhaps worried for their friend and not thinking clearly, perhaps just idiots, tried to grab my wrists. I wrenched away easily, with one deft movement, and punched them both in the face.

The two went flying. One crashed into an empty buffet line, the other into an empty table. Blood poured out of their noses. The one on the table wasn't moving, most likely unconcious. I hadn't even used all of my strength-not by half.

The one with the bent crowbar took a jumpy step back, as though she were about to bound away like a startled bunny. I grabbed her before she could, and pushed her into the door to the pantry. She grunted as her head knocked against the doorframe.

I took the crowbar from her hand, and after twisting her arms behind her back I wrapped the crowbar around them like a pair of makeshift handcuffs.

I could hear the police approaching from the station across campus. Even more distantly, sirens. I pushed the thief to the ground.

"So much for a midnight snack," I said, and then flew away.


	3. Chapter Three

I was not surprised when the cafeteria was closed for breakfast the next morning. Actually, the entire floor where the cafeteria was located was taped off, with a hastily printed sign that said CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE. I hoped that it would be open in time for lunch, but at that moment, breakfast was a more pressing concern.

I hadn't eaten last night, even after I had used my powers, which meant I was absolutely starving in addition to feeling slightly shaky, like my blood sugar was off. I didn't have anything to eat up in my dorm, as I had finished off the box of chocolate chip pop tarts a few days ago. There was always the Starbucks on campus, but given the cafeteria crises, I knew that it would be absolutely packed.

That left me with one option: eating off campus. Fortunately for me, my first class of the day didn't start until 11:30, so I put my laptop and some textbooks in my backpack and walked the short distance to Sips, the local coffee shop.

It was a cute little joint, the kind that always played pseudo-hipster music on the radio (think Coldplay or Imagine Dragons), that proudly served fair trade coffee, and whose customers almost exclusively wore Chacos or Birkenstocks. I felt slightly out of place in my scuffed up Chucks and pink sweater and scarf, but just enough to feel cool, not like I didn't belong.

That is, until I saw who was working the cash register.

It was James Olsen himself.

His eyes bugged slightly when he saw me. "Kara."

"Hi," I smiled. I knew it was an awkward smile, and I knew that my cheeks were heated, but hopefully he would just assume that that was because of the cold weather I had just stepped out of.

"I...wasn't expecting to see you this morning," he said, his fingers tapping on the side of the cash register.

"I wasn't expecting to see you either," I replied. "I didn't know that you worked here."

"Yeah. I just started. It's a good gig. Lots of coffee. Good stuff."

There was a long pause, one where I wasn't sure what to say. "I ran into Winn the other day. I'm not sure if he mentioned it to you or not."

James shook his head.

"Oh. Well, it was good to see him again. I've really missed you guys."

"I've really missed you too."

I looked down at the floor. James straightened so that he was no longer leaning on the counter. "Well, what can I get you?"

"A large pumpkin latte, please. And a cinnamon roll."

The cinnamon rolls at Sips were legendary. They were massive, maybe only a little bit smaller than a dinner plate, and were the perfect balance in between sweet and soft. I loved them to death.

James grabbed a cup and wrote my name on it. "Did you hear about the cafeteria last night?"

"Um...something about it. I just know that the cafeteria was closed this morning. Actually, I'm surprised that there aren't more people here getting breakfast."

I thought that James might push the subject of last night's incident, but instead he nodded.

"I am too. I suppose that not as many people eat breakfast."

That was true. My roommate couldn't stomach food in the morning. Maggie was the same way.

James turned around and started mixing my coffee. No one was in line behind me, so I just stood at the cash register, my backpack weighing on my shoulders, as the air began to fill with the scent of cinnamon and icing after he had popped my cinnamon roll into the oven to warm.

"One pumpkin latte, one cinnamon roll," he said, setting both down on the counter.

"Thanks, James. Maybe I'll see you around again."

"Yeah. That would be great."

I picked a seat at a window table, with my back to the counter. I busied myself in pulling out my laptop and textbook and not thinking about James. I shoved a bite of cinnamon roll into my mouth to keep from glancing at him.

I did miss him. I had meant it when I said that. I had met James my first week of freshman year, along with Winn, after we were the only three people in the dorm who wanted the tv to watch the newest episode of Game of Thrones. We became best friends after that, the three of us. We hung out all the time, did our homework together, had Netflix marathons late into the night--much to the chagrin of my roommate.

I missed that so much. James and I had taken a risk when we finally went out at the beginning of last semester. We both knew that we could jeopardize not just our friendship, but our friendship group, and we took that risk anyway.

I had spent my entire freshmen year with James and Winn, and all of last summer talking to them in group text and FaceTime. Up until last November, I had spent almost all of my free time with one or both of them.

My laptop fired up, pulling me from my thoughts. I entered my password, and checked my school email. Once again, I fought the urge to turn and look at James. I hated the awkwardness between us. I missed him and Winn so much.

But, at least I had gotten the first run-in over with.

Alex was standing outside my dorm. I didn't even have to use my x ray vision--I could tell just from the way she was pounding on the door.

I dreaded having to face this conversation. I opened the door as slowly as possible. "Alex, Maggie," I greeted, trying to keep my tone light. "How can I help you?"

Alex walked into my dorm. Maggie followed, with less intent in her steps.

"Kara, what did I say about using your powers?" Alex demanded after I shut the door behind us.

"I...I don't know what you are talking about."

"Literally, the entire school is talking about what happened in the cafeteria last night," Maggie said.

"Cafeteria?" I tried again.

"Kara, come on. You promised me you wouldn't use your powers again. You know how dangerous this is."

"I didn't mean to. I wasn't out looking for it. I promise."

"And wrapping a crowbar around someone's hands?" Alex continued. "What were you thinking? You know normal people can't do that. Now the school board and the local authorities are looking for a nonhuman with super strength."

I winced. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I was just...reacting."

"Look," Maggie spoke up for the first time. "I get why you want to help people. I really do. I mean, that's how I chose my major, and how Alex chose hers."

"One of mine," Alex countered. "I'm double majoring in bio-engineering, remember?"

"Not important right now. Anyway," Maggie continued, "I get the allure. I mean, if I had superpowers I would struggle with not using them too. But you can't act outside of the law."

"And you can't get yourself caught."

I put my head in my hand. "I appreciate the concern. Really, I do. But you try living with super hearing, being able to hear any time someone is doing something wrong or dangerous or harmful, and knowing that you can stop them. It's impossible not to. Trust me. I've tried."

Alex sighed. "So what, you're just going to keep up this vigilante gig?"

I nodded, more assuredly than I felt.

"You're going to have to be the one who tells Mom. She'll kill me when she finds out."

Maggie put her hand on Alex's arm. "We'd better get going. We're going to be late." I don't know if that was actually true, or if she was just saying it to diffuse the situation. Either way, I was grateful.

"You should come with us, Kara," Alex said, still a slightly miffed tone to her voice. "It's the LGBT club that I've been telling you about."

I looked back at my laptop with the open Word document. "No thanks."

"Come on," Maggie said. "It's open to bi people. That's kinda what the 'B' stands for."

I smile. "That's alright. I have homework to do. Maybe next time, though."

They head for the door. Alex glances back at me. She was still frowning. "Please be careful, Kara."


	4. Chapter Four

I continued my nightly excursions, always wearing dark clothes, always keeping my ears peeled for trouble. It wasn't until a week later, a Friday night, when an incident did occur at a local party. I took care of it--just in time too--and afterwards, oddly enough, I was absolutely starving.

I managed to sneak back into my room and grab a box of mac and cheese without waking my roommate. Then, I crept back down the steps to the dorm kitchen, the dry macaroni noodles jangling in my hoodie's pocket.

The light was on in the dorm kitchen. I considered turning around and just going to bed, but I knew that sleep would be impossible without first sating my appetite for mac and cheese. I could ignore whoever else was down there snacking.

Except that I couldn't. Because she recognized me when I walked in.

"Oh, hello," Lena Luthor said from the table in the corner. "Kara, isn't it?" She said that with a tone that let me know she already knew my name, and was just clarifying out of etiquette.

"Yes," I said, crossing the kitchen to the stove.

"I'm Lena."

I nodded as I filled a pot with water.

"My roommate is always asleep by 9:30. Always. And she always wants the room to be dark and quiet. Meanwhile, I have essays to write and online quizzes to take."

I couldn't figure out why she was talking to me. Most of the time when someone was in the kitchen, they absolutely ignored my presence. I maybe recieved a nod and/or tight lipped smile, if I was lucky. So why did Lena, the Textbook Thief, insist on making idle conversation?

"Anyway, that's why I'm down here. At--" she checked her phone-- "2:36 in the morning."

I watched the water begin to boil. "I was hungry."

"I can see that."

Lena reached up and pulled her hair out of its messy bun. Her sleek hair cascaded down her back, glistening in the fluorescent lights. Her hair was absolutely captivating. I tried to stop staring.

I suddenly became aware of what I was wearing. Dark colored sweatpants and Alex's baggy hoodie. Not exactly the height of fashion, but also exactly what the vigilante would wear. Hopefully Lena would not put two and two together.

"So what topic did you choose for your research paper?" Lena said around the hair tie clasped between her teeth.

"Uh...Vindication, actually."

Lena tugged her hair into a ponytail, then started wrapping it around itself. "No kidding. So did I."

I poured the box of macaroni into the boiling water. "You probably chose to write about all of the misogynistic things that she said."

"Actually, I chose to write about the historical figures and events that Vindication inspired."

"Oh."

"I thought that it sounded interesting."

"It...does."

There was silence for a few minutes, other than the sound of me draining the macaroni and stirring in the cheese powder, and Lena tapping her pen against the table.

I should have just made myself a bowl and left. Or sat down in silence. Instead, my manners got the best of me.

"Would you like a bowl?"

She glanced up. Then smiled guiltily. "Would you mind? It does smell amazing."

I shook my head, and Lena stood up and grabbed a bowl from the cabinent. I sat down at the table opposite of where Lena had her homework set up.

Had Lena forgotten all about stealing my textbook? Or did she think I was someone else, and had not put two and two together yet? Or was she just playing it cool? I couldn't figure it out, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why I was being nice to her.

"So, Kara, are you a sophomore, junior...?" She asked, keeping her eyes fixed on her bowl.

"Sophomore."

"Me too. Well, it's actually a bit complicated. I did a year and a half at a community college, getting my prerequisites out of the way. So I think that I'm a sophomore?"

"Is this your first semester here?"

Lena nodded. "Not to be weird, or anything, but this mac and cheese is amazing."

I smiled, in spite of myself. "It's just normal Kraft macaroni and cheese."

"It's so good." She forked another bite into her mouth. "It probably helps that I haven't eaten since noon."

"Probably." I took a bite too. "Do you know if the cafeteria is open again?"

"It is. It opened for lunch."

I shouldn't have brought up the cafeteria. It would be so easy for Lena to turn the subject to the vigilante.

But she didn't. Instead, she asked me about my major.

"Journalism," I replied.

"How fun."

"It is. Or at least, I think it is. I haven't done a lot of classes for my major yet. That starts junior year." I really needed to stop talking to her. She might think that I actually liked her or something.

"I'm getting a business degree."

"Oh, that's..." I tried to think of a word.

"Boring, I know. But it's useful. Practical."

I looked down at my bowl.

Lena stood. "Thank you for the amazing mac and cheese. It was truly a lifesaver."

"No problem." I stood as well, rinsing out my bowl and fork in the sink.

"I'll see you Tuesday, then," she said.

"Yeah. See you."

The poster took up half of the bulletin board in Ellsworth Hall. It was bright blue, with red block letters.

Don't Take the Law into Your Own Hands! See a Crime--Report It!

I wasn't sure if I should be angry or flattered. I mean, this poster was obviously in response to my actions, put up by the school board or the police. Or both.

I briefly considered taking a picture to send to Alex, but decided against it. I didn't want to freak her out, especially since she was already freaked out about my vigilante night job. So instead, I turned my back on the poster and headed to class, its message still hiding out in the back of my mind.

I sat down in the front row once again, busying myself with opening my notebook, finding the correct page in my newly arrived textbook, and not looking at Lena, or even acknowledging her presence. We had shared a late-night meal, and she had stolen my free textbook from me--that was where our relationship ended.

In class that day, we discussed Coleridge's poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I had found the poem odd, to say the least. I mean, it was about this old guy who crashed a wedding to tell the guests about this time he killed an albatross which resulted in his ship's crew dying off and several weird run-ins with supernatural beings.

Ms. Steele asked us what we thought the point or the theme of the poem was. I snuck a small glance around the classroom, to see if there was any sort of possibility of someone other than Lena or I answering. I wasn't surprised when I saw that there were only two other people present: Sleeping Beauty, whose cheek was plastered against the table, and Anime Guy, who had lost any sense of subtlety and was scribbling away in a sketch book.

"'Don't kill an albatross,'" I suggested.

Ms. Steele laughed. "That's always a good idea."

"'Shoot any bird you like, but to kill an albatross, well that's a sin," I said, spoofing the quote from To Kill A Mockingbird.

This time, I got a chuckle out of Lena too.

"Actually," Lena said after a moment, "that brings up an interesting point about the similarities between this poem and To Kill A Mockingbird."

"How so?" Ms. Steele asked.

"Well, the reason why Atticus told the kids not to shoot a mockingbird was because of their innocence. He said that mockingbirds did nothing but sing, and shooting one is a sin because of that, because they do nothing but provide sweet songs for anything that is listening."

I found myself staring at Lena as she talked, watching as she tugged at her shirt, the same shirt that she had been wearing the other night in the dorm kitchen.

"This particular albatross did nothing other than offer help to the ship's crew. In that way, it was innocent. And the Mariner killed it anyway."

"That's interesting," Ms. Steele said. "I have never thought about that."

I had not either.

"I just thought of it, actually," Lena said. I noted the smile that kept tugging at her lips, the proud glint in her eye. Lena was a woman who liked to be praised.

I wondered why she had not talked to me before class or after class. Not that I should care. I didn't. But she had been very friendly last night. Now, she was acting like I wasn't even there. Perhaps it was because there were people around. Witnesses that could ruin her reputation if they saw her doing anything kind. A true Luthor.

I spotted Winn once again as I left my class, catching sight of his backpack as he shuffled down the hall. I called out to him, and he stopped in front of a water fountain.

"I...I actually have something that I want to talk to you about. A question I'd like to ask."

He frowned a little. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything is fine. Don't worry about that."

I paused when Lena walked past the two of us. I knew that she saw me, though I wasn't sure exactly how I knew, but she kept her eyes fixed ahead.

I shook my head, turning my attention back to Winn. "Do you still want to hang out sometime? We could go get some coffee."

"That sounds good to me. I'm free tonight if you are."

I had a test to study for, but I could make time. "How about Sips, seven o'clock?"

He nodded. "I'll see you then."


	5. Chapter Five

Why was it that everytime I went to Sips I ran into someone working the register that I did not want to see?

First it was James, which was bad enough. But now, I step up to the counter only to be greeted by my mortal enemy: the stuck up, argumentative, green-eyed textbook stealer, Ms. Lena Luthor herself.

Her eyebrows jumped when she saw me. "Kara," she said.

"Hi," I said, frowning slightly. "I didn't know you worked here."

"I usually only work weekends, but I picked up a friend's shift."

"Oh."

She nodded as she continued. "Yeah, it's a great job. I'm really lucky to have it." After a moment, she cleared her throat. "Anyway, what can I get you?"

I ordered my latte, paid up, and quickly found the table that Winn had picked out for us. I climbed up into the tall chair, tossing my bag onto the floor at my feet.

Winn took a sip of his coffee. "I'm going to be up all night," he mumbled.

"Yeah, me too." Actually, that was probably a good thing, since I was planning on going out again that night. Coffee would definitely be helpful, especially given how my continuous late nights had begun to catch up with me.

Lena stepped up to our table, setting my latte down in front of me and wiping her hands on her apron. "Here you go, Kara."

"Thank you," I said, forcing away the smile that habitually lept to my face.

"Of course. I'll see you Thursday."

Winn watched Lena as she left. "She's cute," he said.

I snorted. "Trust me, you could do better than her. She's...annoying."

"I meant for you."

I snurled my nose. "What?"

"I mean, she...nevermind."

I shook my head as I took a sip of my latte.

"Anyway, what did you want to talk about?"

"Oh. Right." I took a breath, hoping I wasn't making a mistake. "So, you know the campus vigilante?"

He thought for a moment. "You mean the one who trashed the cafeteria?"

I pursed my lips. "The one who saved the cafeteria from robbery and vandalism, yes."

"What about it?"

I glanced around the room. There weren't a lot of other people there, and most were out of earshot. The closest person had headphones in.

I braved a look in his eyes as I whispered, "I'm the vigilante."

Winn froze with the coffee cup still on his lips. Then he scoffed. "No, you're not."

I frowned. "What makes you say that?"

"I mean, you're not aggressive. You don't know how to fight."

That wasn't true. I had trained in self defense for several years back on Krypton, but I didn't really know how to explain that. So instead, I said, "I don't need to know how to fight." Then I looked around once again just to make sure that no one was watching, and I set my finger on the table.

Winn watched as I pressed my fingertip on the hard surface. I let go of some of my control, let just a little bit of power eek into that one appendage. When I lifted my finger, there was a dent in the table, perhaps a quarter of an inch deep.

He gasped as he ran his own fingers over the dent. "How...?" He breathed. "You must have superstrength. Like Superman."

"Superman is my cousin."

"SUPERMAN'S YOUR--"

"Shhh! I don't want the whole shop to know."

Winn put his head in his hands. "I need a moment."

I took another sip of my latte.

"Superman's your cousin..." he murmured, dazed eyes resting on the dent in the table. "So that makes you...?"

"An alien. From Krypton."

"And you're telling me this because...?"

"I need a favor."

Winn sat up in his seat. "Are you asking me to be your sidekick? Cause I don't have any powers or anything, but I will totally be your sidekick."

"Not exactly, but I do need to take advantage of a particular skill of yours."

"What, computer stuff? Star Wars trivia? Singing?"

"Costume designing."

He nodded for a moment. "Well, what have you been wearing so far?"

I explained my usual outfit of oversized hoodie and dark pants. "I know it's a lot to ask of you," I said, "but I'd be willing to pay you for it. I just need a better way of obscuring my identity. I'm scared that the hood is going to fly off and someone is going to recognize me."

"Do you have a superhero name?"

His question caught me off guard. "A what?"

"A superhero name. Like Superman. But different, obviously."

I shook my head. "No. So far I'm just the 'campus vigilante.'"

Winn made a disapointed face. "Well, I still think it's a pretty cool thing that you're doing."

I held up a finger. "But it's also illegal."

"But it's also really cool. I mean, you're a superhero. I'm friends with a superhero."

I grinned. It was relieving to hear Winn call me a friend. We had barely spoken to each other since I had broken up with James. I realized just how much I had missed him.

"I mean, I'll have to take your measurements. And find some sturdy material."

"So you'll do it?" I sat up in my chair.

Winn spread his hands. "You've convinced me."

I let out a tiny squeal of happiness. "Thank you thank you thank you."

He leaned forward, grinning mischeviously. "So how much money are we talking about?"

I felt eyes on me as I left Sips. I looked over my shoulder, my eyes connecting with Lena's gaze. She didn't look away, and she didn't smile. She just stared, unflinchingly.

I shut the door behind me.


	6. Chapter Six

Winn took my measurements the next morning.

"Are you sure that James isn't going to walk in on this?" I asked as I stepped into Winn's dorm.

"Positive. He has a class right now."

James never missed a class. No matter what. In his first three semesters, he had perfect attendance in all of his classes. My worry eased.

After Winn had measured literally every inch of my body, he said, "I made some sketches last night, of your costume. I have some interesting ideas."

"Oooh, let me see."

He pulled a few loose sheets of paper out of his desk drawer. "Since you work mainly at night, I wanted to keep the colors dark."

I held up a sketch. "This is incredible. Do you really think that you could make this?"

Winn nodded. "It might take me a couple weeks, since I'm still making the costumes for Legally Blonde. But I'll get it done."

"I can't wait to wear this."

"I can't wait to make it." He grinned as he rifled through the sheets of paper. "I mean, I'm designing a costume for a superhero."

"I can't thank you enough," I said.

He glanced up at me. "Well, I couldn't exactly let you keep fighting crime in a frumpy hoodie, now could I?"

That night, I sat at my desk and flipped through the Quizlet flash cards for my American History 1 class. There was only one exam for this class, the rest of the grades being determined by papers and in-class essays, which I was much better at. That's why I was spending so much time studying my flash cards.

Alexander Hamilton was...

I smirked to myself, thinking a bastard, orphan, son of a whore, and a Scotsman. I stopped myself before I got to carried away and selected the correct answer: America's first Secretary of the Treasury.

I glanced up when my ears picked up on an odd noise from across campus. I listened closer, hearing their whoops and chants of 'jump! jump!'

My roommate was furiously scribbling notes and underlining phrases in her textbook. I could've screamed and she wouldn't have noticed.

Instead, I grabbed my hoodie and tugged it over my head as I raced out the door.

I kept my eyes ahead as I zoomed through the air, the setting sun obscuring my face from anyone else who might've happened to be out on campus at that point. With my x-ray vision, I spotted the crowd gathered around the campus pool, all eyes focused on the roof of the nearby dormitory.

My heart sank when I noticed the figure standing on the edge of the roof.

'Jump! Jump!'

I could see the Greek letter that was painted on his chest, the way it jumped up and down as his chest heaved. The rest of his potential fraternity cheered him on, urging him to jump to his death. I mean, I understood that initiations were supposed to be dangerous, but the dormitory roof was at least two yards away from the pool, if not more. There was no way he could make it. I flew faster, forcing myself forward as the kid took a deep breath and threw himself off the roof.

He wasn't going to make it.

The angle was wrong. He would smack against the concrete around the pool, if he was lucky.

Good thing I caught him first.

I sunk a few inches when he slammed into my arms in an attempt to prevent from breaking him into three even pieces. I briefly considered tossing him into the pool, then decided against it. Instead, I set him down on the ground and stood up.

The entire fraternity was silent. I glanced around, scowling at as many of them as I could.

"Stupid," I huffed, before I took off to alert the campus police.

Apparently, one of the frat boys had been taking a video of the initiation. By the next morning, everyone had seen it. When I walked through the cafeteria, every other table was discussing the rescue. My rescue.

I quickly left the cafeteria.

As I did so, I passed by a room that I had never been in before, long and thin and closed off.

"This vigilante must be stopped," a voice inside the room said. They spoke in a quiet voice, but I had accidentally overhead them with my super hearing.

"No," said another voice decidedly. I slowed down outside of this room, trying to act casual and like I wasn't snooping, even though I totally was.

The room was filled by one long conference table, with faculty members seated in each of the chairs, or so my x-ray vision told me. Standing at the head of the table was a woman with shoulder length hair and an expression so severe I was scared of her even though the wall that separated us.

"No," she repeated again. "We do not need to stop this vigilante. We need to figure out who this vigilante is and what it is that they want. We need to determine if this 'vigilante' is truly seeking to help others or if they are hostile."

"They are hostile," said another faculty member. "Remember what they did to the cafeteria?"

I clenched my teeth together.

"Mark Robinson."

The faculty member blinked. "What?"

The scary lady paced a few steps toward the faculty member. "Mark Robinson. A freshman. He is the young man who involved the campus police after the vigilante saved him from harassment. According to his testimony, the vigilante helped him."

"By beating up the other two involved. No matter the cause, we cannot tolerate that behavior on our campus."

"Precisely," said a second faculty member. "Shuster University prides itself on being a safe campus. How can our students feel safe when there is a hostile, violent alien preying upon them at night?"

The scary lady rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't be such a xenophobe, Helen. We don't know if this person is an alien."

"You saw the video, Cat. You saw this thing fly through the air and snatch an unsuspecting student from the air."

"Here is what we are going to do:" the scary lady--Cat--leaned against the table.

Wait a minute. Cat. Cat Grant? As in college president Cat Grant?

"We are going to double up on security, particularly at night. We are going to find this vigilante and we are going to find out what it is that they want. Dismissed."

I got out of there quickly.

 **Hey everybody! Just wanted to give you a heads up and say that I'm going to be out of town for the next two weeks, so I'm not sure how much I will be able to update. I will definitely try to update regularly, but I'm not sure how busy I'll be (or how much I'll be able to write). Just wanted to let you guys know! Thank you all so much for reading and commenting. Seriously, everytime I read one of your sweet comments it absolutely makes my day. =) Happy reading!**


	7. Chapter Seven

I had considered eating in my dorm instead of meeting Alex for lunch, but decided that that would be worse than actually dealing with her contempt for my night job.

Fortunately for me, all I got from Alex was a side eye and a muttered comment. I breathed a sigh of relief as I sat down.

"You haven't told Mom yet, have you?"

I shook my head. "Not yet."

"You need to. Soon. Maybe over Thanksgiving break."

"I know, I know."

Alex poked at her food with her fork. "Hey, the LGBT club meets tomorrow. You should come."

I really should. I had been meaning to since the beginning of this semester, but something had always come up. Usually homework.

"I can't," I said, making an apologetic face. "I have an exam on Monday that I need to study for."

"You can blow off studying for an hour or so. Besides, I know of a certain...friend of yours who has started going."

I frowned. "Who?"

But Alex didn't answer because that was when Maggie showed up. I shrugged it away and continued eating.

Lena ignored me before class once again. I knew that she saw me, or at least, that she was aware of my presence. I could tell because she scooted her coffee cup closer to her to make room for my stuff.

I couldn't figure her out. Sometimes, like in the dorm kitchen that night and when I ran into her at Sips, she was super friendly, but other times, like now, she ignored me, and other times, like during class, she did nothing but argue with me.

And then there was the whole issue with the textbook. Why would a Luthor, who doubtlessly had money to spare, bother with trying to borrow or rent a textbook instead of just buying it? Three hundred dollars was surely pocket change for someone like Lena. For that matter, why would a Luthor need to work in a coffee shop? I would have assumed it was just for the work experience, but Lena had said that she was 'lucky to have it.'

Lena glanced at me, and I realized that I had been staring at her. I snapped my attention back to my notebook, hoping that Lena didn't read to much into our eye contact.

"Alright everybody, let's get rolling." Ms. Steele didn't even bother giving the role today. There was only one other student there besides Lena and I, and they sat in the back row with headphones on, not even attempting to disguise the fact that they weren't paying attention.

Ms. Steele spent the majority of the class lecturing, so Lena didn't have time to debate with me, which was fine by me. She also didn't talk to me after class. She just scooped up her bag and her coffee and marched out.

I was still thinking about this when I saw Winn standing in the doorway. One look at his grin and I knew exactly what it was he wanted to talk to me about.

"It...It's beautiful," I whispered, running my hand over the fabric. It was a sturdy material, thick but pliable, and of a blue so dark it was almost black.

"So you like it?" Winn asked.

"I love it. It's perfect."

He grinned. "I had so much fun making it that I got it done quicker than I thought I would. Oh, and I added a little something to the chest there."

I ran my hand over the symbol, the s shape like the one that Superman wore. Only this one was faint, the same color as the rest of the fabric, raised slightly so that it was just barely visible, and would be impossible to see in the dark.

"It's the perfect touch," I said.

"So, um," Winn scratched the back of his neck. "You don't...actually need a sidekick, do you?"

I laughed. "I'll let you know if the position opens up."

My dorm was quiet that evening. My roommate had gone home for the weekend, to spend time with her family. Leaving me alone in a quiet room. I was attempting to study, but had a hard time concentrating. Perhaps I should put on some music. Or some of those study noises that were supposed to help with concentration. Or, I could always move in to the library.

My phone buzzed on my desk, dragging me out of my state of distraction. It was a text from Alex.

Be nice. She needs your help.

I frowned. What the heck? I read the text a few more times, trying to make sense of it. Perhaps she had just sent it to the wrong person. I started to type wrong number? but was interrupted by a knock on my door.

I was wearing my glasses, so I stood up and answered the door the old fashioned way.

That was a mistake. I should have prepared myself more.

Because standing at my door was none other than Lena Luthor.

 **Hey everyone! So sorry for the delay. I have been crazy busy this week. Also, I know that this is a really short chapter. Don't worry! If I don't update on Monday I'll definitely update before next Thursday. Thank you so much for reading and leaving your sweet comments! I've read every one of them and look forward to more. I hope all you lovely readers have a great day!**


	8. Chapter Eight

What was she doing here?

Lena adjusted the strap of her duffel bag on her shoulder. "Hi, Kara."

"Hi?" I said, ignoring the lilt of a question in my own greeting.

"So um," she looked around the hall. "Wow, this is really awkward. So, I know that we don't know each other that well, but I need a place to stay for the weekend. My roommate's boyfriend is visiting, and," she made a face, "I don't really want to be around for that."

Ew.

"I know that you don't know me that well," she said again. "But I don't really have any where else to go."

I tried to think of a reason why I couldn't let her stay, but I came up empty. My roommate was gone, conveniently leaving behind an empty bed in need of use. I had no reason to turn Lena away. Besides, I wasn't that cruel.

"Um, yeah. Yeah, come on in."

My bed was unmade. Not only that, but my pajamas from the night before were haphazardly strewn across my pillow. I closed my eyes and sat down at my desk, hoping that she did not see the mess.

I watched Lena as she set her bags down on the floor then flopped down next to them. She sat criss-cross-applesauce, so comfortably and so casually it was like she had sat down on my dorm room floor a million times before.

"How did you," I scratched my forehead, "how did you find out where I lived?"

"Alex told me."

"Alex? How do you know Alex?"

"The LGBT club. Did she not tell you?"

"No...oh." Lena must be that 'certain friend of mine' that Alex mentioned yesterday. "Yeah, I guess she did."

"Anyway, I met her and Maggie there a few weeks ago."

"Oh. Okay."

"And yesterday I asked Alex if she had any room in her dorm this weekend, and she said that she didn't, but that your roommate was going home for the weekend and that you would be alright with me crashing here for a few days."

I nodded. "Yeah, I mean, there's a perfectly good bed in need of use. And a desk. And you know that I'm a night owl too, so you can stay up studying for as long as you want to."

Lena smiled, picking at the frayed edge of a rip in her black skinny jeans. Her whole outfit was really cute, actually. She had on a green and black checked flannel shirt and Doc Martens, with her flat ironed hair cascading down her back.

Meanwhile, my hair was bundled into a messy bun on the top of my head, which perfectly complimented my old, stretched out t-shirt and sweatpants. I told myself that it didn't matter, that it was only Lena. Still, it was always uncomfortable wearing casual clothes around someone in cute clothes.

"Oh, did you ever get another textbook?" Lena asked.

I blinked in surprise. "Um, y-yeah. I rented it from Amazon." I tried to keep the scrunch out of my brow, but failed.

Lena Luthor confused the heck out of me. I didn't even know that she remembered me from the library, and now she was just casually bringing it up.

"That's good," she continued. "I should have done the same instead of hogging the library's copy."

I nodded.

"I'm sorry if I was rude or pushy that day. I was stressed, and I didn't really have another option."

I groped around for an answer. "Th-that's okay," I finally said. "It's no big deal. It all worked out."

But it was a big deal. Wasn't it? I mean, I had only brooded about it since the beginning of the semester.

I looked around, trying to think of something else to say. My eyes landed on a rainbow pin on her messenger bag.

"I like your pride flag." The words left my mouth before I could think about them.

Lena glanced at her bag. "Thanks."

"I've been meaning to get a bi flag pin for a while, but I keep forgetting."

She grinned. Like, not just smiled politely. I'm talking grinned. "Oh, you're bi?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Why don't you attend the LGBT club then?" Her tone was light and teasing.

"I keep meaning to," I explained, leaning in my chair so that it spun a little. "Alex keeps bugging me to come. But I always have something else to do."

"You definitely should come. It's super helpful. For me, anyway."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Lena fiddled with pin on her bag. "It's just very affirming to be surrounded by people going through similar things as you. You know, like, I'm not a special snowflake just for having family issues."

"Oh, are your parents not cool with...everything?"

"The lesbian thing, you mean?" Lena was laughing, but I could tell that it was a little bitter. "Yeah, I would say that."

"That sucks. I was really fortunate. Alex came out before I did, so it was a very casual thing for me."

"Lucky." She laughed again and shook her head. "Sorry. I don't mean to sound so bitter."

"It's fine. Really. I don't mind. So, um, are your parents super religious or something?"

"Ha. No. Not unless you count 'money' as a religion, which I think they do. No, they're just good, old-fashioned homophobic."

"That sucks," I said again.

"They think that having a gay daughter will ruin the face of Luthor Corps. As if the fraud, multiple scandals, and mob connections won't do that already."

"They sound classy," I said.

Lena scoffed. "Tell me about it. But, the Luthors are obsessed with their image. That's the only reason why they adopted me, I'm sure of it. They wanted to do something nice to restore their image." Then, she shook her head. "Wow. I didn't mean to turn this into a therapy session or anything."

"No, that's fine. Don't worry about it. Really." I looked at my desk, trying to think of something else to say. "I was adopted too."

Lena's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, that's right. I remember Alex saying something about that."

"So that's two things that we have in common," I said, counting on my fingers. "We're both gay and we're both adopted."

"And we're both in Ms. Steele's British Literature II class."

"Three things!"

Lena laughed. She had the cutest smile. I had never noticed before.

"Quick, what's your favorite food?" As soon as I said it, I realized that it was kind of a dumb question.

Luckily for me, if Lena thought it was a silly thing to say she didn't act like it. "Any kind of pasta," she said dreamily. "I'm not picky. I'll eat it all."

"Right?" I said. "All pasta is good pasta."

We fell silent for a moment, still gazing at each other, still smiling.

Was Lena Luthor actually...nice?

I shook my head and looked away. I couldn't do this right now.

"Well," I said, hoping I didn't sound as awkward as I felt. "I had better get back to studying."

"Oh. Right." Lena stood and started rummaging about in one of her bags, pulling out a toothbrush and toothpaste and a wad of clothes. "I'm going to go change."

After she stepped out of my dorm, I released a breath and tried to focus on my flash cards once again.

Lena really was a night owl. When she returned to my room, dressed in flannel pajama pants, she sat down at my roommate's desk with her laptop and started working on a research paper. She was still going steady at 1:30 in the morning when I decided to retire for the night.

"I'll be done in just a few minutes," she said. "I just want to finish this section, if that's alright." After a moment of typing, she added, "I'm so glad that I'm finishing up early tonight."

I'd gone to bed anyway, my late nights vigilante-ing finally catching up to me. I didn't think that I would be able to sleep with the light still on, but somehow I did without even realizing it.

I wasn't sure how much later it was when I woke up. All I knew was that the lights were off, Lena was asleep in my roommate's bed with her back to me, and a weird noise, from somewhere outside of the dormitory, was echoing in my ears.

It was high pitched and staticky, like the spraying of a can of hairspray. Then there was a pause, then a rattling noise, and then the staticky sound again.

Spray paint.

Meaning that somebody was decorating the campus in graffiti.

I considered just going back to sleep. It was only graffiti; it wasn't like they were hurting anyone.

But then my conscience gnawed at me. It shouldn't matter whether or not someone was getting hurt. Someone was doing something wrong, and it was my job to stop them.

I got out of bed and tip toed toward Lena. Her breathing was even. She wouldn't notice I was gone.

As quickly as I could, I pulled my new costume out from under my bed and pulled it on. It fit perfectly. And I had never felt cooler than when I tied on the cloak and pulled the hood over my head.

The 'street artist' had chosen my dormitory as their canvas. And I was super glad that I had decided to stop them when I saw their 'art', if I could call it that. It was barely more than obscene gas station restroom doodles. Nasty.

"Come on, dude," I said. "Aren't we a little old for this?"

They turned around slowly. "Don't hurt me."

I froze, for just a second. "I'm not going to hurt you."

There was a pause. Then, the guy through their can of spray paint at me and took off in a sprint.

The can bounced off my head. I considered chasing after them, but decided that that would be overkill. Instead, I faced the wall, trying to determine how to clean off the guy's doodles.

I heard a noise on the other side of the building. I tensed, thinking it was campus police, and that the school really had followed through on their threat to double up security.

But when I turned back around, I saw another figure. One wearing flannel pajama pants and a shocked expression on her face.

"Kara?" Lena gasped.


	9. Chapter Nine

"So you're the vigilante, then?" Lena asked.

I looked down at the costume that Winn had made for me, at the body suit, the boots, and the cape. "No?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Kara, I heard you leave the dorm."

Shoot.

"Apparently stealth isn't one of your superpowers. So, what, you're an alien, then?"

I looked around. I highly doubted that there was anyone else around, but I didn't want to risk anything.

"I'll tell you back at the dorm."

About fifteen minutes later, when we were both back in my dorm and I had changed into my pajamas, I told Lena everything. About my alien heritage, about my powers, and about my choice to protect this campus.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone else," I said once I had finished. "And I mean anyone. Especially any faculty members."

"I won't," she said, leaning forward. We were both seated on the floor this time. "I promise."

I nodded.

"So who else knows that you're doing this?"

"Alex and Maggie," I replied. "And my friend Winn. He made my costume. Do you know Winn?"

Lena thought for a moment. "The name sounds familiar."

"And now you."

She shook her head. "This whole thing is...awesome."

I couldn't help but smile. "Really? You think?"

"Yeah. You're like a mix in between Superman and Green Arrow."

I waved my hand in the air. "Noooo."

"Yes, really."

"I mean, maybe Superman, maybe."

"Right. Because of the powers and the whole...righteous do-gooder thing."

"No," I said again.

"And you're like Green Arrow because of the hood, working under the cover of night, and, you know, the badassery."

I laughed. Actually laughed, and hoped it wasn't loud enough to wake up the neighbors. "I am not."

Lena laid on her side so that she rested on her elbow. "I don't know," she murmured. "I think you're pretty badass."

She looked up at me, one eyebrow quirked slightly, a smirk still tugging at her lips.

I felt my cheeks flush.

Lena glanced at the clock. "I need to get to sleep. I have work in the morning." She crossed the room to my roommate's bed.

"Goodnight, Kara."

I flipped off the lamp on my desk. "Goodnight, Lena."

Lena wasn't so bad.

That's what I woke up thinking. An odd thought for so soon in the morning, but I suppose it could be attributed to our conversation right before I went to sleep. Also to how the sounds of Lena getting ready for work is what woke me up, and the sight of her trying to attach her name tag to her shirt was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes.

I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair, hoping that it didn't look as crazy and matted as it sometimes did when I first woke up.

Lena turned around. "Oh, Kara. I hope I didn't wake you."

I waved my hand. "It's fine. I have a lot to do today anyway."

"Yeah, so do I," she mumbled.

"Are you working at Sips today?" I asked.

"All day."

"Cool. I might stop by later. Get some homework done."

Lena's eyes met mine once again as she smiled. "Yeah. Do that. I'll make you a latte on the house."

"Pumpkin latte?"

"Of course."

I laughed. "That sounds great."

"I've gotta go. I'll see you later." Lena ran out the door.

I sat down at my desk. I needed to get ready for the day so that I could go down to the laundry room and get a few loads in. Seriously, I was down to the bare minimum as far as wearable clothes went.

But I sat there a few minutes more.

Yeah. Lena wasn't so bad.

On my way to the campus laundromat, I noticed a cleaning crew scrubbing away the graffiti on the side of the dorm. I felt a small stab of guilt at not cleaning it up the night before, but I didn't exactly have any access to cleaning materials. I felt even guiltier when I walked past the crew without offering to help. I mean, I had several good excuses not to, and the huge, cumbersome basket full of laundry that I was struggling to keep from dragging the ground was definitely near the top of the list.

After I put in my first load, I felt a buzz in my pocket. It was a text from Alex.

So I'm assuming that you didn't kick her out last night?

I cringed as I realized that I forgot to finish my reply to her yesterday.

No, I let her stay. Thanks for the heads up, by the way.

I sat down on a nearby chair to do the assigned reading for British literature. I felt another buzz a moment later.

Hey, that's your fault. If you had come to the LGBT club like I wanted you to then you could have found out there.

I smirked before I shoved my phone back in my pocket.

I went back to my dorm to change before I made the walk over to Sips. I put on my favorite short sleeve button-up, the white one with tiny black cat faces all over it, along with jeans and a pair of black oxfords. As I fixed my hair in the mirror, I told myself I was dressing nicely because I wanted to, and for no other reason.

I tugged on my coat and backpack and walked to Sips. When I walked in the door, Lena immediately looked up and held up an empty coffee cup.

"Give me just a minute, I'll be right over."

The grin lingered on my face even after I sat down at the window counter and pulled out my laptop. I opened up the essay I was working on so that I would feel less guilty when I browsed the internet on my phone.

Lena sat down next to me a few minutes later. "Alright," she said, setting down the coffee cup. "A large pumpkin spice latte, and a snickerdoodle. On the house."

I picked up the cookie, the sweet smell wafting towards me. "It's even warm." I broke off a piece and tucked it into my mouth.

Lena leaned her chin in her hand. "Well, I know how to say thank you."

I was distracted for a moment by the way her smile stretched across her lips. The way she looked at me through her eyelids in a subtly flirtatious way. I opened my mouth, my brain short-circuiting. I spat out the first sentence that popped into my head.

"I'll get us dinner tonight. To thank you for your 'thank you.' What do you like? Do you like pizza?"

"I'm a human. Of course I like pizza."

I laughed, perhaps a little bit longer than necessary, but I couldn't seem to stop. "What toppings do you like?"

She looked down at the counter. "I'm weird. I like Hawaiian."

My jaw dropped. "Me too."

"No kidding. I guess we're perfect for each other then." She paused a moment before she said, "at least when it comes to sharing a pizza."

I scrambled for something to say, something clever. Or at least something. Instead I just sat there, staring at her, floundering.

Fortunately, I was rescued by James, who approached the counter where we sat. "Hey, Kara," he greeted. His eyebrows jumped when he noticed Lena. "Lena. You two know each other?"

"We're roommates for the weekend," Lena said.

"Ah." James looked between the two of us like he wondered just exactly what was going on.

"Anyway," Lena said to me. "I should be off at seven. I guess I'll see you then."

I'm sure I was grinning like a doofus. "Yeah. Yeah absolutely. I'll see you then. With pizza."

Lena returned to her post behind the counter, James following. I tried to return my attention to my essay, but failed. It was fine. I had another week before it was due. Instead, I just ate my cookie and drank my latte, smiling to myself.


	10. Chapter Ten

Back at my dorm, I sat at my desk, once again staring at my open Word document but getting absolutely no work done whatsoever.

Lena had been flirting with me.

I mean, she had, hadn't she? Did that mean that she liked me? Surely not. Surely I was just seeing things, just imagining things differently than they had actually happened.

I heard a knock at the door. I threw off my glasses and looked through the door, expecting to see Lena standing on the other side. Instead, I just saw the pizza delivery person.

Moving much more slowly, I accepted the pizza and paid the person for it. After they left, I ran down to the first floor of the dormitory and got two Dr. Peppers. When I returned, I found Lena waiting for me outside my dorm.

"There you are," she said, slipping her phone back into pocket.

"I went down to the drink machine," I explained, opening the door up. "We must've passed each other."

"I took the elevator."

"Ah. That explains it. I took the stairs."

Lena entered my dorm and set her bag down on the floor. "Gosh, that pizza smells amazing."

"I know, right?" I opened the cardboard lid and put a slice for each of us on a paper plate. "I didn't know what kind of soda you liked, so I got you Dr. Pepper. I hope that's okay. I could always run and get you whatever you want."

Lena took the bottle from the table. "We must have similar tastes in everything. Dr. Pepper is my favorite."

I grinned, keeping my eyes locked on my paper plate because the thought of making eye contact was suddenly too much for me.

Lena sat down on the floor and I sat down across from her, like I had last night.

"This pizza is incredible," she said.

"It's the best in town," I said. "I got it from the local Italian place instead of Pizza Hut or something."

"You're spoiling me," she stated, raising her eyebrow.

I raised my eyebrow as well, leaning forward slightly. "Well, I know how to say thank you."

She quirked both eyebrows this time, in what I could tell was an appreciation for my cleverness. Not knowing what else to say, I opened up my Dr. Pepper, the loud hiss of the carbonation killing the mood between us.

"So, at the risk of this conversation not passing the Bechdel test, James told me that you two used to date. Is he correct, or was that just wishful thinking on his part?"

I laughed. "Yes, he was right. We went out for almost all of last semester."

"Ooh, what happened? If you don't mind me asking. I am always up for some gossip."

"Yeah, it's no problem. Um, we just didn't...work out. I guess that's the best way to put it. We were friends--best friends, even--and we both knew when we started dating that we ran the risk of jeopardizing not just our friendship but our friend group. And then we did exactly that."

Lena nodded for me to continue.

"I broke up with him because I realized that I didn't like him the way that I should. The way that I thought I did. I found myself wishing for the way things were when we were both good friends, instead of enjoying just being with him. And that wasn't fair to James, so I broke up with him."

Lena shook her head. "That's rough."

"Yeah. It was."

"If I may say so, he seems to really miss you. Would you ever get back together with him?"

"No, I wouldn't ever date him again. If he wanted to be friends again, then yeah, definitely."

There was quiet for a minute or two when I stood up to get two more slices of pizza. When I sat back down, I said, "so how long have you worked at Sips?"

"I started over Christmas break. Actually, when it reopened after being closed for Christmas."

I nodded. "Nice."

"I really like it there. Boss is nice. And I get paid a dollar-fifty more an hour than I did at my last job, so that's a plus."

"Definitely."

"Then again, anything was a step up from my last job."

"What was your last job?"

Lena rolled her eyes. "I worked at this rinky-dink supermarket that only the dregs of society frequented. And only the slightly-motivated dregs of society were employed there, other than myself."

"That doesn't sound fun." I shoved half of the crust in my mouth, then realized that that probably wasn't the best move on my part. Fortunately for me, Lena continued talking and didn't notice.

"It was not fun. But it was literally the only place nearby that was hiring."

"Your parents have a lot of connections, don't they? Couldn't they have gotten you a job or an internship or something?"

She scoffed. "Yeah, I was staying with Lex then. They weren't really talking to me at that point."

"Oh, was that after they, um, found out?"

"Yep. After Lillian walked in on my girlfriend and I."

My eyes darted to my plate. I was sure that my face was bright red.

"We were only making out, but still. Talk about mortifying."

I briefly thought about what it would be like to make out with Lena. She seemed like someone who knew what she was doing. I shook my head, trying to clear that thought away. It was not an appropriate one at the time being.

Lena grinned apologetically. "Here I am again, turning this into a therapy session."

I smiled back. "I don't mind. Really."

"You're just..." she trailed off.

"I'm just what?"

"I don't know. Easy to talk to."

"Thanks. You are too. More than I would have thought."

It was then that I realized just how much I had underestimated Lena.

Hey guys! So sorry about not updating on Monday. I'd been travelling and I wanted to give myself a few days to catch up on writing. Thanks to everyone who has been reading, following/favoriting, and commenting! It means a lot to me. =D Happy reading, everyone!


	11. Chapter Eleven

Lena went home the next afternoon, after my roommate returned. Things were back to normal. Relatively. So why did it feel so weird? In the span of one weekend, I went from loathing Lena to actually missing her. And actually looking forward to my Brit lit class and our little debates.

What was wrong with me?

That night, I got a text from Winn. How's the costume working out for you?

Terrific. Used it Friday night. It's absolutely perfect.

A few minutes later, he replied. I paused the show I was watching on Netflix.

Did you expect anything less?

Haha. Want to get together again sometime? I still owe you for the costume. And for getting it done so quickly.

After a minute, he responded with Absolutely :).

On my way to class the next morning, I passed by three campus police officers. Three. Which was three more than I usually saw. Perhaps the school was following through on its threat to double up security.

Then, on my way to lunch, I spotted a security camera outside Ellsworth Hall. And outside the library.

I told Alex about it when I got to lunch. She just scoffed.

"Well, what did you expect?"

I glared at her over my glass of water. "A little sympathy from you, first of all."

She scoffed again. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen. I told you to be careful. Actually, I told you not to do this at all."

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I told Winn about my night job and he made me a costume."

Alex froze, a bite halfway to her mouth. "A costume?"

I described it to her.

"That's...actually kinda cool."

"Right?"

"But I can't believe you told someone else." She smacked my arm.

"Hey, Winn's super trustworthy. He won't tell anyone. I know he won't."

"But the more people that know, the more likely it is that your secret will get out."

I made a cringy face. "Then don't be too mad when I tell you that Lena Luthor found out too."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Kara."

"It's not my fault! She saw me sneaking out Friday night."

"Hmmph. Well, I suppose if it's anyone's fault then it's mine. I'm the one who sent her over to your place, after all."

"Ha." I stole a fry off of her plate.

"And now your mortal enemy knows your secret."

I shook my head. "Lena's not my mortal enemy."

"She was a few days ago."

"And then she spent the weekend at my dorm and I realized that she wasn't so bad."

Alex eyed me over. "Oh, I see."

I frowned. "What do you mean, 'oh, I see?'"

She raised her eyebrows teasingly. "I think you know."

"What? You think I like Lena? Pffft. Please. You could not be more wrong."

"Mmmhmm," she said in a way that let me know that she was completely unconvinced.

"I don't like Lena," I assured her, trying desperately to push all of Lena's flirty comments and the way they made my cheeks flush far from my mind.

"Sure. Well, she is a regular attendee of the LGBT club, so if you want to see your little crush more regularly, then you should come this Friday."

"I will not," I said. "Because Lena attending is not an incentive for me to go, because I do not like her like that."

"Right." Alex stood up. "Look, I gotta run. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Okay. See you."

Hmmph. Alex thinking I liked Lena. Please. A few days ago I could barely stand her. Besides, it was way too soon into our relationship to start assigning names to feelings.

Not that I was having any feelings for her.

I pinned my hair up into a fancy up do that Tuesday. My roommate was terrific with fancy hairstyles, since both of her parents were hairstylists, and she had taught me several cool, intricate ways to pin my hair up. After I had finished with my hair, I decided that I might as well dress nicely to match.

I put on a pale pink dress, along with grey tights, a grey sweater, and black Mary Jane shoes. I looked quite nice, if I did say so myself. And then I left my dorm to head to my Brit lit class.

Lena Luthor smiled at me when I walked in the classroom and sat down next to her. "You clean up nicely," she said. "What's the occasion?"

"No occasion," I replied, hoping that I sounded blasé. "Just British Literature class."

"Well, you look adorable."

I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face, or the redness that surely accompanied it.

"Seriously. You're making the rest of us feel bad." Lena looked down at her clothes.

"Come on, now. You look amazing, as always. Your eyeliner is on point. And I wish that I could pull off flannel as well as you can."

Lena's smirk and eyebrow quirk were absolutely scandalous. "Stop it, you're gonna make me blush."

By that point, I was already blushing furiously. Fortunately for me--or perhaps unfortunately, I couldn't decide--Ms. Steele started her lecture then, and I was saved from having to think up a clever comment.

I was tempted to wear another dress to class on Thursday, but decided against it, instead opting for a comfy yellow sweater, skinny jeans, and boots.

Lena smiled in greeting when I walked into class. I smiled in return, feeling suddenly self conscious and awkward. Not that I wasn't usually awkward, but this was a different kind of awkward.

"What did you think of this poet?" Lena asked me, leaning her chin in her hand. My breath hitched when she put her other hand on my arm. It was done casually, I was sure, but still. I was surprised at the response it illicitated in me, the way my thoughts scattered and left me scrambling for words.

"The poet? Oh, yeah. Rupert Brooke. I liked him. I liked his poetry. It was nice."

"So did I. It was pretty. Morbid, but pretty."

I agreed. Though Brooke was often writing about death, his poetry was gentle and graceful.

"So listen," Lena said, her usual smirkish-smile spreading across her lips. "You had better come to the LGBT club tomorrow. Several people have birthdays this week, so they're all pooling together to get pizza and cupcakes for everyone."

I wasn't planning on attending the next day. I still had that essay due that I hadn't quite finished yet. Instead of protesting, however, I found myself saying, "yeah definitely. For free pizza and cupcakes I'll do just about anything."

"Great."

Ms. Steele spoke up then. "Alright, everybody. Let's get rolling. I'm going to start by sharing a bit of backstory about Rupert Brooke, then we're going to discuss each of his poems that we read."

Why I liked Brooke's poetry more than the other World War 1 poets that we had read in the last week was because he was a poet before the war started, which made his outlook on the fighting and on the death of his fellow soldiers much more flowery and metaphorical than those poets who began writing because of the war.

Then, I liked Brooke even more when Ms. Steele said that he was bisexual.

Lena shot a look at me and raised her eyebrows approvingly. I grinned in reply to both her and to Ms. Steele.

After class, Lena touched my arm again as we were walking out. "So, I'll see you tomorrow then, right?"

All I could think about was her hand on me, even after it slid down to my wrist before she withdrew it.

"Um, y-yeah. Definitely. Tomorrow."

She nodded once. "Bye, Kara."

I looked away from her to see Winn walking out of his class, one eyebrow raised suspiciously. "Isn't that the girl who works at Sips? The one that you said was annoying?"

"Yeah. I mean no. I mean, she's not as bad as I thought she would be."

"Right..." he said slowly. "Anyway, do you still want to get together sometime? We could grab a coffee tonight."

I nodded. "Yeah. Sounds great."


	12. Chapter Twelve

The LGBT club meetings were held in a small room underneath the main auditorium on campus, a room reserved for club meetings, forums, and things of that nature. The walls were blue and lined with stacks of plastic chairs, and the ceiling, which was crowded with pipes and air conditioning ducts had been painted black.

Alex and Maggie stood in front of the far wall, next to the plastic table that housed the pizza, chips, and cupcakes. I couldn't help but notice how Maggie's eyebrows jumped in surprise when she saw me. "Little Danvers," she said as I approached. "Did Alex finally wear you down?"

Alex's expression remained neutral, like she wasn't surprised at all by my presence.

"I heard that there would be free pizza and cupcakes. Of course I came."

"And uh, who did you hear this from, exactly?" Alex asked, smiling smugly.

I felt Lena sidle up beside me. "From me, actually. I invited her."

Alex's smile grew only more smug. I rolled my eyes and ignored her, focusing my attention on Lena.

Lena. She took my breath away. It wasn't just her beauty, though she was absolutely stunning, as always. It was beyond that, beyond anything physical, despite being evident in the twinkle in her eye, the quirk of her smile, and the confidence and grace with which she carried herself. It was her. It was who she was. It was her essence, her aura, her soul.

Her.

It was then that I noticed the warmth in my chest and the giddiness in my stomach. Then that I realized just how much she had plagued my thoughts since I'd first met her. It was then that I knew.

"Don't worry. I made sure that there was going to be Hawaiian pizza," Lena said.

I had to take a moment to compose myself, even though Lena's statement was incredibly casual. "You know me well," I finally managed.

"I also ensured that we had Dr. Pepper. Speaking of which, can I get you some?"

I knew I was reading too much into the situation-way too much, most likely-but I couldn't help feeling in that moment that we were together. That she was my girlfriend offering to get me a drink at a party. Gosh, I was pathetic.

"Yeah. Dr. Pepper, yeah. That sounds great."

Lena left, and I just stood there, equal parts embarrassed at myself and wondering just what exactly I had gotten myself into.

She returned a few minutes later, two styrofoam cups in her hands and laughing at something that a guy had said. This guy followed her so that he easily slid into our conversation.

"Kara, this is my friend Justin. Justin, this is Kara."

Justin held out his hand. He looked like an athletic dude bro, with gym shorts, sports sandals, and a Nike t-shirt. He had spiky hair, a big nose, and a contagious smile.

I accepted his hand. "Nice to meet you, Justin."

"He's one of the people celebrating a birthday this week," Lena added.

"One of four." He shook his head goodnaturedly, like he was disappointed in the fact that he had such a common birthday week but responded to that disappointment with amusement. "But hey, any excuse for pizza."

"My motto," I said, nodding seriously.

Justin squinted at me. "Oh, I know you. You're Alex's sister, right?"

"The one and only."

"Man, I love Alex. Hearing her story--and Maggie's--was so helpful for me."

"Yeah, me too."

"Me three," Lena said.

"Right? They're the best." He clamped his hand on my shoulder. "You come from good stock, my friend."

I laughed awkwardly, knowing it wasn't the right time to tell him that I was adopted. Instead, I just said, "yeah, she's the best."

"That she is. Without her, I would not be the proud ace man that I am today." Not a second later, he said, "alright, I've gotta run. Catch you later."

Lena smiled as he jogged away. "He means well."

"No, he's sweet." I avoided looking at her, and not because it didn't want to.

"Oh, here's your drink."

I breathed a 'thanks,' and when I reached out to take it, my fingers brushed over hers. I felt tingles on my spine.

"So how was your day?" Lena asked.

"It was good. Great."

Lena stood very close to me. Perhaps a little bit closer than was necessary.

"Yeah?" She said in a low voice. "Mine was pretty good too. In case you were wondering."

"I was," I admitted.

Gosh, how could a human be so attractive? I mean, we were standing under fluorescent lights--fluorescent lights, which had the ability to make literal goddesses look sallow and splotchy--and somehow she looked as amazing as she always did.

Her lips parted slightly, and she carefully reached out and grabbed my hand. Well, grabbed wasn't the right word. What she did was so much subtler than just 'grabbing.' She took my hand. No, she touched my hand. Her fingers rested on the soft skin of my knuckles, her thumb absently stroking the inside of my hand.

"So listen," she murmured. Her lips parted again, the words dancing on the tip of her tongue. I nodded slowly, encouraging her to continue. "I--"

"Alright everybody!" Justin shouted from beside the refreshment table. "I'm starving. I want to eat. So we're going to go ahead and sing 'happy birthday' to Amy, Perry, Taylor, and I so that we can help ourselves to pizza and cupcakes." Justin started the birthday song in a lengendarily off-key voice, the rest of the room joining in.

I sang along, but had a hard time concentrating because of Lena's unfinished sentence, and the way my hand still tingled from her touch.

"How about you find us a great place to sit," I said to Lena after the song was sung and the four birthday kids were piling their plates with slices of meat lovers and double chocolate cupcakes. "And I'll go get our food."

Fortunately for us, I stepped in line before a third of the other club members, so I returned to where Lena had procured seats in a private corner of the room before most of the other people had even gotten their first slice.

"Nice," Lena said, taking her first bite. "Not quite as good as the Hawaiian that you got for me, but certainly pretty good."

I smiled at her as I licked some icing from my cupcake. "These cupcakes are super good too."

Lena picked up her cupcake as well. "Some people like to eat dessert before dinner. I like to eat dessert during dinner."

"Me too!" I exclaimed, my eyebrows jumping up in such surprise and excitement that I was afraid that they were going to pop off. "I do that all the time."

"Right? It saves time--"

"--and it's the perfect combination of sweet and salty."

Lena laughed, a sweet tinkly little giggle that made my heart swell. "I just want to say," she said, still grinning, "that I have never met anyone who has such similar food preferences as I do."

"I don't think I have either. Alex thinks that I'm way too picky."

"I think I'm way too picky."

I gave her a fake look of chastisement. "Hey, watch what you say about your food twin."

Her face also turned fake serious. "Wow. You're right. I am so, so sorry." Her face stayed serious after that. "Oh yeah, um...there was that thing that I wanted to talk to you about?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I'm dying of curiosity. Go ahead." Trying to be as chill as possible, I lifted my pizza to take a bite.

That was when disaster struck.

"So...I..." Lena started.

As I lifted my slice, still hot and steaming somehow, a huge glob of cheese and tomato sauce and pineapple slid off and plopped on the front of my dress. It took a couple seconds for my brain to register the searing pain. I squeaked.

Lena exclaimed when she noticed. "Napkins. We need napkins." She scrambled around, trying to find where I had put them. "Where are the napkins?"

I tried to pull the fabric of my dress away from my stomach. "Crap! I forgot to grab any."

The situation only got worse from there. Instead of asking Lena or literally anyone else to grab me some napkins, I decided that the only logical option was for me to stand up and get some myself. But of course, the slippery glob of pizza toppings was as susceptible to gravity as everything else, so when I stood up, it slid farther down the front of my dress and hurled headlong for the floor.

Lena, demonstrating much faster reflexes than I would have thought, shot her hand out and caught the handful of cheese.

"Nice catch," I said. I wasn't sure which felt hotter: the cheese-baked patch on my stomach or my entire face burning from embarrassment.

"Thanks," she replied, eyeing her handful of goop.

"I'm gonna grab some napkins."

I shuffled back to the refreshment table, squeezing my eyes shut. Gosh, why did these things always happen to me? And in front of Lena Luthor, no less.

The food line had reached its peak. Practically everyone was in line. I hovered around it, debating on whether I should hop in the back, even though that would take too long, or just squeeze in and grab a chunk of napkins super quickly.

Unfortunately for me, the group of people standing in front of the plates and napkins were in the middle of a very in depth conversation about--Pokémon, maybe? I didn't know, and it didn't matter. What did matter is that all of their backs were facing me and their conversation was so loud that even though I tried to interject an 'excuse me,' they couldn't hear.

I glanced down at my dress, at the giant orange stain clashing with the dove gray color and white polka dots. Then I glanced at Lena, who had sat back down, still shooting slightly grossed out glances at her handful of cheese.

I had to squeeze my eyes shut again in a truly desperate attempt to push away my mortification.

"Hey little homie. Need some help?"

I jumped, my eyes snapping open. Someone was standing beside me. They were pretty short, and dressed in head-to-toe black and electric blue, from their dyed hair to their shiny new Chucks.

"I am absolutely desperate for some napkins," I admitted to this person, gesturing at the stain and then at the gaggle of people gathered around the table.

They nodded slowly. "I gotcha."

Before I could do anything to stop them, they squeezed their way through the line while exclaiming, "hey! Excuse me! Grabbing some napkins here."

The person returned a few seconds later, shoving the napkins into my hands.

"Wow. Thanks."

They nodded. "I'm Seven. They/them pronouns."

"Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Kara Danvers. She/her pronouns."

"One heck of a stain," Seven mumbled. Then, as fast as they had grabbed the napkins for me, they whipped a Tide-to-go pen out of their jean pocket and handed it to me. "Here you go."

"Wow, you're prepared."

"I'm a waiter, so." They shrugged.

"Well, thank you so much, Seven. I'll get this back to you as soon as I can't."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I have a whole pack back at my place."

I called 'thank you' to them one last time before they walked away.

"I just met an absolute angel of a human." I sat back down next to Lena and handed her a fistful of at least twenty napkins.

"Yeah, Seven. They are a sweet human." Lena scooped the goop off of her hand, then wiped away at the remaining bits.

I furiously scrubbed away at my dress with the pen. "I am so sorry about this mess."

"It's actually really funny. Not to make light of your pain, or anything."

"At least someone can find some humor in it." I wiped at the foam on my dress with a napkin.

"Honestly?" Lena said, giggling adorably. "I'm just glad that it didn't happen to me."

"You are way too cool to ever do something like this."

She scoffed. "I could tell some stories."

"I would love to hear them."

Lena stood up, gathering the soiled napkins as she did so. "I'm going to run to the bathroom and wash my hands."

"Okay. Hurry back." That was probably a stupid thing to say, but I had used up my embarrassment quota for the day, so I quickly pushed away my anxious thoughts.

Before Lena returned, Alex and Maggie sat down on the floor across from me.

Alex snickered and pointed. "You have a little dress on your stain, there."

"Very funny." I braved another bite of pizza, carefully holding my plate under it the whole time.

Lena returned soon, and the four of us spent the rest of the party talking and laughing, other club members weaving in and out of our conversation.

After a few hours, when the food was divided up among club members and everything was cleaned up, Lena and I walked back to the dorm together, since we lived in the same building. I walked her all the way to her door, trying not to feel like I was dropping her off after a date, failing, and then grinning at how giddy that thought made me.

Yeah. I was in trouble.

"You'd better come back next week," Lena said, leaning against her doorframe.

"I will. Definitely will. I had a ton of fun."

"So did I." She glanced over her shoulder into her room. "Alright. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I said. As Lena started to shut her door, I exclaimed, "oh wait a second. What was that thing that you wanted to tell me?"

"Oh. Right." She pushed the door back open with her hip. I gulped. "I um, I wanted to..."

She froze, staring at me, like she was searching for words.

"Lena? You okay?" I asked after several silent seconds.

She shook her head. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine. I just..." Then she sighed. "I have the worst roommate ever."

I blinked, slightly disapointed. A small part of me was hoping that she was going to ask me out. "What did she do now?"

"Her boyfriend is visiting again this weekend. Just over Saturday night. Would it be awful if I invited myself over again?"

"No, absolutely not," I said before I really thought it through. Last time Lena asked to stay in my dorm, I had been trying to come up with a reason why she couldn't. Now, I was trying to come up with a reason why she could. "I mean, my roommate is here this weekend, but she won't mind." I would make sure that she didn't mind.

"I'm sorry about making you do this again."

"Oh, it's no problem. We'll figure out the sleeping arrangements."

Her smile was almost the death of me. "You're the best, Kara."

I giggled--actually giggled--unable to come up with any sort of coherent reply.

"Alright, well. I'll see you Saturday."

"See you, Lena."


	13. Chapter Thirteen

There was a disturbing lack of crime on campus. Well, maybe disturbing wasn't the right word. Unusual? It doesn't matter. Any lack of crime was a good thing. It was just odd, that was all. Maybe the school board's quest to up campus security was working. Either way, I missed my night job, but at the same time, I did enjoy catching up on sleep.

Then again, without my night job, I lacked a decent distraction to keep me from obsessing about Lena's visit. It was only about forty-eight hours--probably less than that--in between when she asked me and when she was actually coming over, but it felt like weeks. I was actually crazy looking forward to it, but I was dreading it at the same time, dreading the self-consciousness I would feel and the possibility of another cheese-glob level mishap.

My roommate was asleep by the time I got home Thursday night, so I didn't get to run the news by her until the next afternoon, after my Friday class when I headed back to my room after lunch.

She seemed slightly annoyed by the news, but then again, that was how she usually looked. "Okay," she said slowly. "But she can't stay in my bed this time."

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry. I'll give her my bed, and I'll take the floor. Or something."

My roommate kinda scared me, which was why I avoided her when possible. Her side-eyes were legendary, possible of making grown adults wet themselves and have the sudden urge to call their moms for comfort and reassurance. She cut me one of these deadly looks now, and I felt my brow start to sweat.

"Riiiight."

I frowned, and was about to ask what she meant, but she scooped up her bag and walked out the door, obviously over this conversation.

I did a Walmart run that afternoon, picking up some extra blankets and pillows. If I was going to make Lena Luthor sleep on the floor, then gosh darn it she was going to do it in comfort. I considered getting her an air mattress, but decided that that was a lot of money for something that I wouldn't have the room to store. Instead, I just bought a crap load of fleece and/or fuzzy blankets and decided that that would be good enough for one night. Besides, I might give Lena the bed and just crash on the floor myself.

Lena came by Saturday evening, after she got off of work. After dinner, I'd come back to my room and attempted to kill the three hours until Lena showed up by getting some homework done. I had forty-one pages of reading for my history class, and in those three hours I read six of those pages. Six. The times that I hadn't spent trying to focus I had been distracted by the internet, approximately eleven YouTube videos, and by trying to style my hair in the mirror. My roommate spent that time not talking to me, headphones in and watching some reality show that had something to do with the fashion industry on her laptop.

When I finally recieved Lena's text saying that she was on the way, I jumped up from my desk and slapped my textbook shut. I wasn't reading it anyway. Who was I kidding? Instead, I spent the rest of the time pacing and obsessively checking my appearance in the mirror. Gosh, I was getting vain. Or paranoid. Possibly both.

And then there was a knock at the door. My heart raced as I walked across the room, anxious and excited and comfortable and uncomfortable, all at the same time.

Lena's smile was almost as delicious as the smells emanating from the bags in her hands. "I brought treats," she said.

"You know the way to my heart."

I followed her into my dorm. My roommate looked up from her laptop, her expression as blank and slightly irritated as always.

"Hi," Lena greeted. "You must be Kara's roommate. I'm Lena."

"Mmmhmm," was all she said.

Lena cleared her throat. "I brought some coffee and cookies from work. You're welcome to have some."

My roommate returned her attention to her screen. "I'm pescatarian."

"Pescatarians can eat wheat products, right? That's a plant."

Another unappreciative side-eyes from my roommate, and that was the end of their conversation.

"Don't mind her," I said after she had put her headphones back on. "She's always grumpy."

"Yikes." Lena flopped down on the floor the way that she usually did. I flopped down across from her.

"Your pumpkin spice latte, madam."

I grinned, taking the coffee from her and trying to control my blushing when our fingers brushed.

"Did you have a good day?" I asked, popping off the lid so that my drink could cool down a bit.

"Yeah, pretty good. Sips was really busy, but I got some good tips."

"Nice." I opened one of the bags and pulled out a giant chocolate chip cookie. "So, I know that your roommate and her long distance boyfriend can be annoying, but if you're going to bring me cookies and coffee everytime you spend the weekend, then maybe its not such a bad thing."

Her suggestive eyebrow quirk sent my heart reeling. "I completely agree."

I gulped and glanced at my roommate. For some reason it felt too weird to be flirting with her in the room. Lena must have noticed my hesitation, because she then busied herself with picking out which cookie she wanted.

"You want to watch a movie?" She asked.

"Sounds great. What are you in the mood for?"

She thought for a minute. "Something...Disney."

Could she get any more perfect? "I completely agree."

After browsing Netflix for a few minutes, Lena and I decided to watch Mulan. It took literally every ounce of my self control not to sing along with each song. I had to keep chugging my latte and stuffing cookies into my mouth to keep from bursting into song, which, upon reflection--no pun intended--was probably equally embarrassing.

About a fourth of the way into the movie, after Mulan was comfortably dressed in drag and awkwardly trying to convince everyone of her masculinity, Lena turned to me and said, "so, I hate to be a bother, but I'm a little cold..."

It was only then that I noticed how the sleeves of her flannel shirt had been tugged down over her hands, and how she sat with her arms squeezing her middle and her knees hitched up to her chest. I felt stupid for not noticing sooner. I suppose I'd been too busy eating my snacks and sneaking glances at Lena to watch the way she smiled or giggled when something funny happened.

"Oh yeah, of course. Let me check the heater." I stood up and crossed to the window, where I fiddled with a few of the dials. Instead of heat eking out, there was nothing but cold air, as if it was the middle of summer instead of the middle of February.

Frowning, I turned it off, then switched it back on. Still cold. With no other option, I switched it back off and rounded my roommate's bed.

"The heater's broken," I explained. "That's why it's so cold."

"It's okay. Don't worry about it." She wrapped her hands around her coffee cup and took another sip.

"No, I have just the thing." I pulled a few of the fuzzy blankets that I had bought out of my closet and tore off the wrapping.

"This is perfect," Lena said, unfurling the blanket and pulling it up to her chin. Gosh, she looked so cute and cuddly.

"Sorry about the heater."

"It's fine. This is nice." She lifted up one side of the blanket, motioning for me to join her under the covers.

Trying to keep my grin under control, I scooted up next to her and spread the blanket over my legs.

Needless to say, it was hard to concentrate on the movie after that.

After it was over, Lena and I spent the next hour and a half talking. We touched on loads of topics, from our other favorite Disney movies, to funny childhood stories, to embarrassing bands and songs that we used to listen to religiously.

It was almost midnight at that point, and I was yawning at almost every other word.

"Are you ready to go to sleep?" Lena asked.

I nodded, yawning yet again. "Yeah, I think so. Yikes. I can usually stay up later than this." I think I was still catching up on sleep from all of my late nights.

"I could use some sleep too. And I somehow ended up with no homework this weekend, so that's a plus." She pulled the blanket back up around her arms. "Do you have an extra pillow?"

I whipped open my closet door, pulling out the pillows and blankets that I had acquired.

Lena laughed. "For me?"

I smirked as I tossed them to her. "All for you."

Lena started ripping the packaging off the other blankets.

"I'll take the floor," I said, suddenly feeling guilty. "You can take the bed."

She scoffed and shook her head vehemently. "No. It's your bed and I'm the one who crashed in with little warning. I'll take the floor. I don't mind."

"But it's so cold. You'll get sick."

"My immune system is crazy good, and besides, I have like, twenty blankets thanks to you."

So I caved. I let Lena Luthor take the floor while I slept on the bed. I felt bad about it, and I felt even worse a few minutes later when I heard her teeth chattering.

"Lena," I whispered.

"Yeah?" She whispered back.

"There's enough room up here for two. If you're too cold down there, that is."

There was a pause when all I could hear were blankets rustling. "You wouldn't mind?"

"No, absolutely not. I would never forgive myself if you froze all night."

I heard more rustling, probably as she sat up and took one of the blankets with her. I wiggled over so that I was all the way against the wall, giving Lena as much room as possible. The plastic, University-supplied mattress crackled as she crawled in next to me, her shoulder bumping into mine, then her hip.

Laying there, staring into the dark, it was hard to believe that I wasn't dreaming, that Lena Luthor was actually in my bed. In a purely platonic sense, but still. The girl that I liked was in bed with me. And, as weird a thought as it might be, she smelled really good. Her hair, spread across my pillow and brushing my cheek smelled fresh and clean and...dreamy.

Lena's chattering slowed. "This is much better," she murmured.

I felt my eyes close as I enjoyed the warmth of her under the covers with me, felt the comfort and serenity that she brought. I drifted off to sleep with the thought of what it would be like to wake up next to Lena.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

My eyes blinked open blearily, taking in the wall just inches from my face. I was scooted down much farther than I usually was, my head just barely on the pillow, the covers almost completely blanketing my head.

But, more than that, even in my sleepy state, I was hyper aware of Lena's arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me to her. I could feel her stomach moving up and down against my back, could feel her breath fanning against my neck.

Lena had snuggled up to me in the night. Lena and I were snuggling. In my bed.

I scooted a little bit closer to her, my own hand resting on her arm. I felt my eyes closing once again, wanting to make these moments between us last. Unknowingly, I fell back asleep.

I woke up again, this time laying on my left side. Facing Lena. My eyes opened at the same time as her. She held my gaze, and it was then that I realized that her arm was still draped over my waist.

We were inches apart. Lena's lips parted. Her hand moved to my waist, her fingers brushing across a sliver of exposed skin. It sent chills up my spine. I tried to think of something to say, to do, because as amazing as this was, and as much as I wanted to kiss her, I knew that I would be too groggy, too preoccupied by the fact that I hadn't yet brushed my teeth and desperately hoping that Lena didn't notice to properly enjoy the kiss. And I wanted to enjoy it.

Before anything popped into my sleepy brain, Lena broke the tension as a frown crossed over her face. "Kara, what time is it?"

I sat up a bit so that I could see the digital clock on my bedside table. "8:28."

Lena sighed. "I have to be at work at 9:00." She lay there a second longer before she sat up.

My roommate's bed was empty. I wasn't sure exactly where she was, as I didn't know all that much about her and didn't really know how she spent her time, but it was probably for the best that she was gone.

Lena rolled out of bed and started rummaging in the duffel bag that she had brought. "Hey, thanks again for letting me stay tonight. And for..." she gestured to where I was still sitting, my legs dangling over the side of the bed. "You know. Sharing your bed with me last night."

"Yeah. Of course." I tried to come up with a non-creepy way to say that I had enjoyed it, and came up empty.

Lena stepped into the bathroom to change and brush her teeth, and I changed while she was in there. Then she gave me the bathroom while she fixed her hair and packed up the rest of her stuff.

Less than ten minutes later, I stood in the doorway, Lena standing on the other side. "I'll see you Tuesday."

"I look forward to it."

Lena's lips quirked upward. "I had fun last night. With you."

My smile was faltering, possibly out of nerves. "So did I. Tell your roommate that her boyfriend can spend the weekend anytime he wants."

Lena squeezed her eyes shut. "Kara, I have a confession to make," she said, her words coming out in a rush.

"Um, y-yeah. Is everything alright?"

Her eyes locked with mine. "My roommate's boyfriend didn't come over this weekend. I made that up because I wanted an excuse to spend more time with you."

Well, this was certainly the best confession I had ever gotten. My heart pounded, not in an anxious way, in more of an oh-my-gosh-I-think-this-girl-might-actually-really-like-me-and-it's-so-impossible-to-think-with-her-leaning-toward-me-like-that.

Now would actually be the right time to kiss her. We were both awake, my teeth were brushed so I would be able to enjoy it, and she had just confessed that she liked me. I leaned toward her as well, her eyes dropping to my lips.

Just as I was about to close the distance between us, to take her face in my hands and pull her to me, she squeezed her eyes shut once again and took a small step away.

"I really have to get to work," she murmured.

"Yeah. Yeah, of course."

"We'll talk later, okay?"

I nodded numbly. She turned and left then. I thought I heard her mutter "bye, Kara," as she walked away, but I couldn't tell for sure, and was too shocked at what had happened to risk calling out to her.

That afternoon, I headed to the campus library, my laptop, a few textbooks, and my costume shoved into my backpack. I wasn't quite sure why I had brought along the last thing. It had been practically a week since the last crime--if crime was the right word--had been committed, and I was starting to feel on edge. Or paranoid. Constantly feeling as though the lack of crime was building up, and that when one finally did happen, which it could at any moment, that whatever happened was going to be really, really bad.

I tried to avoid looking at the security cameras that had been set up on almost all of the buildings. I tried to avoid thinking about them as well, because that made me feel equally as paranoid.

"Kara."

I practically jumped out of my skin.

James smiled. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay. I'm just..."

"Jumpy?"

"A little bit."

"So, Winn tells me that you two have been hanging out more lately."

"Yeah, we have."

"That's cool." He nodded a few times. "And Lena, too. Am I right?"

I thought back on this morning, on the weird, stifling tension between the two of us. "Yeah, we have as well."

"I don't know her that well, but she's really nice from everything I've seen of her. Not at all how I thought a Luthor would be."

I smiled. "Yeah. She surprised me too."

"I think she really likes you, by the way."

I felt my cheeks heat once again. James looked down at the sidewalk, kicking at a small pebble with his toe.

"Look," he said, "I know that things might not ever be exactly the same as they were before, but I really miss hanging out, just the three of us. Maybe it's too soon, I don't know."

"Maybe it is. But I think we should try. Maybe we could all of us have lunch sometime?"

"That would be great." He flashed his smile. "I've really missed you, Kara. And not just in...that way. I mean, I have felt so weird this semester. Things haven't been the same since we stopped spending time together, in any sort of way."

"I've missed you too," I said. "And Winn. I've felt the exact same way."

It was then that I heard it. Distant, but close. Too close for comfort.

I heard screams. Muttered threats. The clicking sound made when the hammer of a pistol is pulled back.

And Lena's whispered words: "I'll give you what you want. Don't shoot.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

"I have to go."

James frowned. "Kara, what's wrong?"

"Lena's in trouble. I have to go."

I barely heard him warn me to be careful before I took off. I made a brief pitstop behind my dorm building to tug my costume on before I took to the sky, leaving my backpack hidden behind a bush. I was too worried about Lena to try to find a safer place for it.

I made it to Sips in record time. I burst through the door, landing right in front of the pastry display case.

The gunman's head whipped in my direction. "What the heck?"

Yeah, it's safe to assume that he didn't say heck.

"Drop the gun," I roared. "Now."

He looked at me with wild eyes. Before I could react, he aimed his pistol at my chest and fired.

I'd heard from Clark that we were bulletproof on this earth. Still, this was the first time I had ever been shot at, and I couldn't help but flinch as the bullet ricocheted towards me.

The gunman froze when the bullet bounced off of me. He looked at his gun, then looked back at me.

Just as I was about to rush him, take him out, he pointed the gun towards Lena, who stood behind the counter. "Move and I'll shoot."

Lena raised her hands, her face ghostly pale, her eyes wide.

I clenched my fists, feeling the anger bubbble in my chest. No one threatened Lena. No one. Not on my watch.

I stared him dead in the eyes, even as my vision turned red, even as the lasers tore out of my eyes and burned right through his.

He screamed in utter agony, dropping the gun, forgetting all about the robbery as he groped at his eyes--or rather, what was left of them.

I snatched up the gun from the ground, quickly setting it to safety. Then, I flew over the counter, scooped Lena up in my arms, and soared out the door.

I dropped the gun in a nearby dumpster so that I could hold on to Lena better. Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she rested her cheek against my shoulder.

"You okay?" I whispered.

She nodded against my shoulder. I tightened my grip around her waist and her knees. I wasn't about to let her fall.

"Everyone at Sips was safe," I said, hoping that it would ease her mind. "I saw a lady call 911. The police will be there soon."

She nodded once again, and I felt her hair brush against my neck. I had to stop myself from shivering.

I flew back to campus, landing on the roof of my dorm building. I wasn't sure why. It just felt right. My feet hit the hard concrete of the roof, and I bent my knees, setting Lena down as gently as I could.

Her arms remained around my neck, even after she regained her footing. She leaned into me, and I felt her shaking slightly as she pulled me to her.

"Hey, hey," I said. "It's okay. We're okay." I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her back as gently as I could. Lena's breath was thin and wobbly, like her lungs were walking on a tightrope.

"Everything's fine now," I continued, keeping my voice as soothing as possible.

I held her for a solid minute, until her breathing slowed and her shaking ceased. She pulled away, and I was going to ask her if she was feeling better until her eyes meet mine, and I was frozen.

My skin tingled from the way her hands rested on my neck, her thumbs stroking my jawline. I leaned forward, my lips searching for hers, and just as I was about to ask if I could kiss her, Lena Luthor closed the distance between us.

My eyes closed with the sudden swell of emotion that her kiss brought. I kissed her back, her lips soft and sweet against mine. I longed to pull her to me, to hold her as close as I could, but I couldn't risk it. I couldn't risk hurting her, even accidentally. So I left my hands on her waist, easily distracted by Lena's breath tickling my skin and her fingers entwining in my hair.

She pulled away then, eyes still closed and her face so close to mine that I could feel her eyelashes on my cheek. Her lips brushed against mine, absently, in a way that made me absolutely desperate for more.

"You're my hero," Lena breathed. "I can't thank you enough."

"You did a pretty good job of thanking me," I murmured.

She leaned away then. "Was...was that okay?"

"Yeah," I said, maybe a little too emphatically. "Very...very okay."

She laughed softly, her nose wrinkling up. I couldn't help it: I kissed her again. Her lips smiled against mine before she deepened the kiss, leaning against me. My breath caught in my throat when she threw her arms around me, and mine slid around her as well. I held her as gently as I could. And I forgot about everything else.

Once again, it did not take long at all for the news about the armed robbery at Sips to spread like the flu. Even though it was off campus, Sips was extremely popular with college students, so by the next morning everyone was talking about it or showing each other clips from a leaked security camera video.

The buzz was so obvious that even I noticed, despite the fact that I'd had my head in the clouds ever since Lena had kissed me. Running the risk of going on a serious tangent, I'd been so giddy about the whole thing that I spent the rest of the day giggling and humming sappy love songs to myself. Then, when I'd been unable to sleep that night, I snuck outside and sat under my usual tree, like old times. I didn't even bring my costume, just wrapped myself in my cardigan and looked up at the stars and thought about how lucky I had to be that Lena Luthor would actually kiss me.

Gosh, I was pathetic.

So that was why the rumors spreading about the robbery-and-rescue actually reaching my awareness was so surprising.

"It just creeps me out," this girl in my French class said to someone sitting behind her. She was sitting backwards in her chair, her phone poised between the two of them. "I mean look at the way it just flies away."

I squeezed my pencil between my fingers, trying to keep myself from breaking it. Or, perhaps trying to keep myself from correcting the girl and her dehumanizing terminology.

Then later, in the lunch line, I stood behind two guys, both of whom looked to be on one sports team or another (not that I really paid much attention to those), and who were in the middle of a heated discussion about the Sips robbery.

"So do you think the caped person is an alien?" The first guy asked.

'Caped person' was much preferable to 'it'. I would take 'caped person' any day.

"Could be."

"That's so cool."

"Really?" Said the second guy. "I think it's pretty terrifying."

The first guy smirked. "What dude, are you scared or something?"

"Of an alien? Um, yeah. I'd say that's a pretty valid fear."

I smirked to myself as I grabbed my plate. It was always fun hearing people talk about you in front of you without them knowing.

When I sat down at lunch, I was greeted with a flat look from Alex. "So, I see that you've started doing rescues off campus."

I took a sip of my root beer--it was that kind of day. "What was I supposed to do? I heard that there was trouble. I couldn't just stand by."

"Yeah, yeah. I guessed that much." She took a bite of her sandwich. "Look, I'm not saying that you did the wrong thing."

"I know I didn't."

Alex punched my shoulder good-naturedly. "I just worry about you, you know. I'm afraid that you're going to get hurt someday."

"A bullet literally bounced off of me at the robbery. Not to brag or anything, but I think I'll be fine."

"Not like that. I mean, I'm afraid that you're going to get discovered and you know, expelled. Or arrested."

I scoffed. "Yeah. Thanks for being worried, but I don't think that that's going to happen."

I felt a buzz in my pocket, and pulled out my phone. I grinned when I saw that I had a text from Lena.

How's my hero doing this afternoon? ;) Anyway I was just wondering if you wanted to meet for coffee or something?

I thought about playing it cool, maybe waiting a few minutes to reply. That thought stayed in my head about three seconds before I started typing out my reply.

Yeah, that sounds great!!! What time?

"Who are you texting?" Alex asked. She said it casually enough, but I could still tell that she knew exactly who I was talking to.

"Lena," I said.

"Oh, and how's she doing after the whole...incident?"

The image of the two of us kissing on the dorm roof briefly flashed through my head before I pushed it away.

"She's fine. Now."

My phone buzzed again.

Can I pick you up at seven?

Alex squinted at me. "What are you grinning for?"

There was no way I could hide my excitement. "I have a date," I squealed.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

I changed my outfit at least twenty times that evening. Ever since I'd developed my crush on Lena, I had become practically glued to my mirror every time I was going to see her.

"Do I look better in pink or yellow?" I asked my roommate.

She finished scribbling out a sentence in her notes, taking her sweet time about it, before she glanced up. "I don't care," she finally said.

"Please?" I asked again. "You know about this stuff. Which should I wear?"

Irritably, she glanced between my two options. "Yellow," she finally said. "The cut of that particular dress is flattering on you. Plus, I'm sure she'll appreciate the scoop neck."

I ignored that particular comment and headed to the bathroom to change. "Can you fix my hair?" I asked when I came back.

My roommate rolled her eyes, but she stood up from her desk anyway. She spent the next half hour teasing and curling and pinning my hair. By the time she finished, I looked--and felt--terrific.

Lena thought so too. Her eyes bugged a little when I opened the door. "You look stunning," she said.

"All thanks to me," my roommate called from across the room.

"You look great too," I said, admiring her black skinny jeans and black blazer and the way they looked on her. "As per usual."

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," I said. "Just let me grab my bag."

Lena and I walked down the hall to the elevator, and I felt a swell of pride just thinking about the possibility of Lena Luthor being my date. I kept sneaking little glances at her, and more than once, I caught her sneaking glances at me as well. She smiled her beautiful smile, her eyes sparkling, as she pressed the button on the elevator.

"So, are we still getting coffee?" I asked.

"Actually, I'm a little hungry. We could get dinner, if you wish."

The elevator doors closed behind us. Lena leaned against the far wall, facing me. She fiddled with the gold colored chain on her sleek black clutch.

"That sounds great to me. I'm always up for food."

"Great."

We strolled, side by side, from my dorm building down to student parking. I entertained the idea of holding Lena's hand, but didn't want to over do it. Besides, my heart was already fluttering wildly, and I was afraid that if I grabbed her hand I would go into cardiac arrest.

Lena stopped at an old Volvo of a fading blue and rammed her key into the hole and started jiggling it around. "This usually takes a minute," she muttered. After passively trying to twist it around, she hiked her clutch strap up on her shoulder and yanked on the key with both hands.

I wanted to offer to help, but knew I wouldn't be able to unstick the lock without breaking the key in the process.

With one last jerk, the lock clicked into place. "Finally." She opened the driver's door and unlocked the car.

"My car's not the greatest," she said matter-of-factly as I slid into the passenger seat. "The lock never works, the radio's terrible, the AC works half the time, but she never stalls on me. At least not yet. Knock on wood."

"At least you have a car," I said. "That's a nice thing to have."

"Yeah, I think she's the last car in existence that only plays cassettes. So, my music collection is a little odd."

She lifted the lid to the middle compartment, and I perused the forty-some cassette tapes in there.

"I have literally heard of none of these bands."

"Yeah, me either."

She pulled into the shopping center and parked in front of the local Italian place. "Is this alright with you?"

"Yeah, definitely."

Lena and I were seated in the middle of the dining room, at a small table with a little vase filled with real flowers, not plastic ones. The vibe of this place was dark, and atmospheric. Not in a creepy way. In a romantic way. It was accented by the red of the tablecloths and flowers in every vase, and the soft, sultry violin music faintly strumming in the background.

After we ordered, Lena lowered her eyes to the table, her fingers fiddling with the cloth napkin. She bit her lip, which caused such a reaction in me that I had to reach for my water to distract myself.

"So listen," she said after a moment. "I've been thinking. About when you rescued me from the robbery. And...you know...what happened afterwards."

"Me too," I admitted.

Lena grinned, and I noticed that she was blushing, probably for the first time since I had known her. "I just wanted to level with you. I would hate for there to be some rom-com like miscommunication between us."

I nodded for her to continue. She had the kind of pinched mouth, wide eyed look of someone who had something to say.

"Look, I..." She scratched her head, then brushed a sleek strand of hair out of her face. "I really like you. Really like you. Like, massive crush. And I have for quite some time now. Probably since the beginning of this semester, when you sat beside me in British Literature and I realized just how cute and smart you were and how stupid it was of me to take your textbook from you. I really like you, and I really enjoyed kissing you. Anyway, that's the reason why I invited you here tonight: I wanted to ask you out officially."

"Really?" I exclaimed.

Lena looked suddenly nervous. Or embarrassed, I couldn't tell which. "Yeah."

"Yes, of course! Of course I'll go out with you."

Now it was her turn to ask, "really?"

"Yes, really. Why, did you think I would say no?"

I would say that she smiled, but she had never really stopped smiling. "I'm just very glad that you said yes, is all."

"Me too."

I reached across the table and took her hand. Her thumb brushed across my knuckles.

And, it was at that moment that the waitress decided to return with our food.

"Thank you again for dinner," I said, standing in front of my door.

"Of course. I know how to say thank you, you'll remember."

I still felt guilty about Lena paying for my food, but she said that she wanted to, that she was the one who had invited me, and besides, she said, it was the least she could do after saving her life.

"I'll text you tomorrow, alright?" She said as she turned away.

"Yeah, definitely." Then, before I realized what I was saying, I called, "Lena?"

She stopped, turned to face me again. "Yeah?"

I felt silly all of a sudden, but I wasn't sure why. "Could I...could I kiss you goodnight?"

Before I could prepare myself, Lena cupped my cheek and pressed my lips to hers. Gosh, she was an amazing kisser. She was soft and gentle and passionate. She had this way of making me feel special, like I was the only one on her mind, like she couldn't get enough of me. And then she pulled away all too soon, leaving nothing but a tingling sensation behind where her fingers left my cheek and her lips left mine.

"Good night, Kara." She whispered. I stood, still feeling dumbfounded and slightly dazed from the kiss. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow."

I stood outside my door, watching her walk down the hall. She stopped and turned, smiling and waving at me. I smiled and waved in return, still in disbelief that this beautiful, amazing girl, that Lena Luthor was my girlfriend.


	17. Chapter Seventeen

For the first time all semester, Lena stood when I entered British Literature, as if I was royalty or something. "Hey babe," she said, leaning in to kiss my cheek.

I was vaguely aware of Ms. Steele blinking in surprise at Lena's greeting, but I was too busy squeezing Lena's hand in response to care.

"How's your day been?" I asked. We sat down, still holding hands between our two chairs. Yeah, we were one of those disgusting couples and I loved it.

"Good. I am tired though. I stayed up way too late last night."

"I remember." Lena had a paper due, and had to stay up well past four to finish it. I knew this because I had stayed up texting her, sending her emotional support via my virtual presence. I should have gone to sleep, given that I was tired and had no reason to stay up other than I wanted to talk to my girlfriend, but that seemed a compelling enough reason to me. Now, in the light of morning, burdened with the physical pain of trying to keep my eyes open, I was only slightly regretting that decision.

Lena yawned in agreement.

I stood up, pulling my wallet out of my bag. "I'm grabbing some coffee. You want some?"

She nodded. "You're the best."

I grinned in response. Just as I was heading out the classroom door and to the Starbucks kiosk just down the hall, Lena said, "oh yeah, I forgot to tell you."

I stopped in the doorway. "What is it?"

"I got a text this morning from Lex saying that he was coming up to visit for a few days."

"Oh, nice."

"Maybe you'll get to meet him."

"Yeah. I'd love to." I could put aside whatever rivalry he had with Clark, right? I mean, my cousin's rivalry was not my rivalry. Besides, he was my girlfriend's family. I had to at least make an effort.

Lena's appreciative smile showed that she valued my effort. "Thanks, babe."

I drank a second coffee with lunch. It was that kind of day.

"How's your night job going?" Maggie asked as she set her tray down.

I leaned forward so that I could talk across the table in a lower tone of voice. "Not great. Meaning that there has been absolutely no crime in over a week, excluding the robbery, of course."

"Yeah, how is she doing, by the way?" Alex asked.

I tried to control my grin and failed. "She's doing great." My phone buzzed with a text. "Oh. This is her now."

Alex rolled her eyes. "You guys are disgusting."

"Aw babe," Maggie said, reaching for Alex's hand. "Remember how disgusting we were when we first got together?"

Alex scrunched her nose. "We're still disgusting."

"Ew, stop." I protested. I distracted myself by sending Lena another round of heart emojis.

Other than the overwhelming sleepiness, my day was going super well. I had an amazing girlfriend, coffee existed, and, as of that morning, I had an A in all of my classes that semester. Now, if only someone would commit a crime, my day would be made.

Alas, my day was made. That evening, as I was reviewing my French vocabulary flash cards, I heard sounds from across campus. The sounds of grunts and slams, like someone repeatedly getting kicked in the stomach.

My roommate was already in bed with her back to me, so I hurriedly got up and tugged my costume on before I ran out the door. I followed the sounds across campus, slowing when I neared a hunched figure.

The figure leaned against the wall of a building with one hand, using it for stability as he repeatedly slammed his foot into someone on the ground. I could not tell who the victim was, for they were obscured by the attacker and by a nearby shrub.

I paused a yard or two away, trying to come up with a clever line. Unfortunately, I ran out of time, because the attacker turned around.

In that moment, I took in two vital pieces of information:

One, that the figure I saw on the ground, the 'victim', was nothing but a discarded jacket. A rouse.

And two, when the man turned around, he opened his fist, revealing the bright shards laying on his palm. He grinned, the bright green color bouncing off his teeth, casting an emerald hue on his bald head.

My knees buckled.

 **Hey guys! Sorry for the short chapter. Also the cliffhanger. I'm moving into my dorm today. Thank you all for your wonderful comments! I appreciate them all. =) Happy reading!**


	18. Chapter Eighteen

Even in my weakened state, I was still able to figure out that this bald, Kryptonite-possessing man was Lex Luthor.

I managed to stay upright until he took a few steps toward me. I hit the ground on all fours, my vision blurring, my brain fuzzy to the point of pain. "What do you want?" I croaked.

Lex said nothing, just continued to advance on me. I tried to crawl away, but he stomped on my ankle.

I fell on my stomach, the wind whooshing out of my lungs. The pain throbbed in my ankle, feeling foreign and acutely uncomfortable. I cried out, trying desperately to breathe in, trying to stay calm despite the pounding of my heart.

Lex kept his heel firmly smooshed into my ankle, and in my weakened state I was able to do no more than squirm around.

"Listen, I need to know three things about you," Lex said calmly. "I need to know who is under that hood. I need to know why you are dressing up like an idiot and taking the law into your own hands. And I need to know your connection with Lena Luthor."

"What..." I sucked in a breath, fighting though the fog in my head. "What makes you think I'll talk?"

He laughed humorlessly. "I was hired by the university to put a stop to your antics. I intend to do that. But not before I gather some intel of my own. I want to know what your relationship with Lena is."

"I don't know who that is," I wheezed.

Lex pressed down harder on my ankle, and I sqeaked in protest. "That's a lie and we both know it. If you didn't know Lena, you wouldn't have stopped a crime off campus, something you had never done before."

Oops.

"Protecting Lena is my top priority. I don't want costumed freaks stalking her. So either you start talking or you will regret it."

"Regret it how?"

He let go of my ankle. I sat up, trying to dust myself off with as much dignity as I could muster.

"I could beat you up right now," he said casually, "but that's not really my style. I could take off that ridiculous hood to see who's been flying all over this campus, but seeing as how there is a very slim chance that I would recognize you just from your face, that doesn't seem like the best course of action either. I could take you to the campus police, turn you in like I'm supposed to, but then I don't get what I want, do I?"

Lex crouched down so that we were eye to eye. "So here's how this is going to go down: you have twenty-four hours to tell me who you are, why you became a vigilante, and how you know Lena Luthor."

"And what if I don't?"

Lex smiled, which was kind of frightening. "You know," he said, holding up his fistful of Kryptonite, "this is pretty powerful stuff. Very versatile. There are ways of spreading this around. Ways that I don't think you would like very much."

I gulped.

"And, I'm sure the school board could come up with plenty of ways of their own. Like it or not, you will be found out. And trust me, it will be much better for you if you come clean on your own."

Lex stood then, pocketing his Kryptonite. "Remember: twenty-four hours. I hope you make the wise decision."

Then, he turned and left, as casually as he had threatened me.

I didn't know what to do. After Lex left, I stood up and carried myself back to my room. I changed and crawled into bed, like it was a normal night. Like I hadn't just been threatened by my girlfriend's brother with a personally lethal alien substance.

My brain raced with questions, such as how I should take out Lex. But there was no way to take him out, not when he had Kryptonite in his possession. Perhaps I could talk to Lena, convince her to take the deadly green crystals from Lex. But I couldn't drag Lena into this. Besides, there was no way she would help me take it from him, especially if it meant that she would be abetting me in roughing up her brother.

No, I had to figure out a way to do this alone. But there was no defense against Kryptonite, at least not that I knew of. I had no way of fighting this. Not by myself, and not with anyone else. I refused to tell Lena that her brother threatened me. It would crush her. No one else that I knew, not Alex, Maggie, Winn, James, or anyone else on campus had any sort of leverage with the school board, or any sort of defense against Kryptonite.

To put it lightly, I was in quite a pickle.

So yeah, I barely got any sleep that night. I was too worried. Too shaken up. I was so relieved when I ran into Lena before my morning class. Just seeing her made me feel better, especially when her face broke into a wide grin and she hurried down the hall to catch up with me.

"Hey Kara," she greeted, squeezing my hand.

"Hey," I said, squeezing her hand in return. For a small second, admiring the sparkle in her light green eyes, I forgot all about the predicament I was in. But then I felt my ankle throb, and to my horror I looked up to see Lex, strolling towards us in the casual yet daunting way of his.

"Oh, this is my brother, Lex," she said, gesturing to him as he approached. "I told you he was coming to town, didn't I?"

"You did," I managed.

"Lex, this is my girlfriend, Kara."

He held out his hand. I gulped as I accepted it, hoping he couldn't feel my hand shaking.

"Nice to meet you," Lex said evenly.

"You...you too." I leaned onto my left leg so as not to flare up my ankle, hoping it was much more inconspicuous than I felt.

"What's your major?" He asked. Gosh, he was equally as terrifying in the light of day as he was threatening me at midnight. Especially since I knew that he had Kryptonite somewhere on his person.

"Journalism."

Lena smiled at me, once again grabbing my hand. I tried to smile back. I tried to look normal. Though I'm sure that I looked like a pale, sweating, bug-eyed deer about to get run over with a semi truck. Or something like that.

"So how'd you two meet?"

Did Lex ever blink? Ick. I repressed a shiver.

"We're in the same British Literature class."

"Yeah, I stole her textbook," Lena laughed.

"Ha ha ha," I forced out.

Lena scrunched her eyebrows slightly. I smiled at Lex, hoping that would distract him from figuring anything out. If it did, I couldn't tell. Lex was impossible to read.

Lena pulled out her phone to check the time. "Well, we need to get to class. I'll catch up with you later, okay?"

After he walked away, I took Lena's hand as we headed down the hall to our class.

"Are you okay babe?" Lena asked.

"Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Perfectly fine."

"Okay. You just seem a little jumpy, that's all."

"Jumpy?" My voice squeaked. I cleared my throat. "I'm not jumpy. I'm fine."

Lena dropped my hand like it was on fire and crossed her arms sternly. The traffic of the hallway parted around us, probably as petrified as I was of her penetrating stare.

"Kara," she said slowly. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

"I...um...there's..." I sighed. "There's something I need to tell you about Lex."

Lena stared at me for another moment before her face fell. "Oh no." She marched down the hall and poked her head into the Brit lit classroom.

"Hey, Ms. Steele. Bad news: something came up and Kara and I aren't going to make it to class."

I felt a little relieved now that she knew, but also worried. Really worried.

Lena grabbed my hand and we headed down the hall in the opposite way. "We are going back to your dorm, and you are going to tell me everything."

"I'm going to kill him," Lena announced after I told her.

"Don't do that," I said, sounding calmer than I felt, probably more for her sake than anything.

"So instead of just, I don't know, talking to me like a normal person, he sets a trap so that he can threaten you for information?"

"Pretty much."

Lena leaned forward and grabbed my hand, like she had been doing all day. Hand holding was a new thing for us. But I liked it. "Listen babe."

Babe. Also new. Also welcome.

"We're going to figure this out," she continued. "We are going to come up with a plan and get you out of this."

"But how? Lex has the Kryptonite. Which means the school has Kryptonite. Which means I either turn myself in or I get smoked out. It's hopeless."

"It's not hopeless. Listen to me." Lena put her other hand on mine, covering it like a warm, reassuring blanket. Probably an odd comparison. Nonetheless, her sweet green eyes bored into mine, earnest, serious. "You are the bravest person I know."

"Am not," I mumbled.

"No, seriously. The bravest and the kindest. I have never met anyone else who would sacrifice their nights to protect their campus just because they can."

"I'm sure most people would if they had the ability to."

"No, they wouldn't. They would ignore it and go to bed. I probably would too. That's why you're the bravest and kindest person I know." Her lips quirked. "Not to mention the prettiest."

I smiled for the first time--the first real time--all morning. "Funny, I was about to say the same thing about you."

She leaned forward and kissed me on the nose. "You're sweet."

I patted her hand so that all four of our hands were jumbled together in a big cuddly mess on our laps.

"Anyway," Lena said, "as the bravest, kindest, and prettiest person I know, you are more than capable, especially with my help, to come up with a plan."

"But what option do we have? Other than turning myself in, which would result in my getting expelled, and that wouldn't do anyone any good."

Lena smirked in a way that simultaneously set off butterflies in my stomach and made me think that she had a genius scheme. "Or would it?"

 **Hey guys! I can't believe Vigilante is almost over! I'm so sad. It feels like the end of an era. A very short era, but still. Anyways, I just wanted to say that I have a few ideas for other Supercorps fics, and I've already started working on a one-shot, so I will definitely be uploading other works soon!**

 **If you guys want to hear about my other ideas and maybe vote on which one you want, just let me know in the comments. Thanks so much, and happy reading!**


	19. Chapter Nineteen

My gut wrenched as I marched down the hall to the college president's office. I shouldn't be scared. The cape of my costume swirled around my ankles, and the clomp of my boots on the carpet floor--seriously, my boots are so epic that they actually clomp on carpeted floors--gave urgency to my steps. I looked terrifying--I shouldn't be terrified.

But I was. Because the one time I observed college president Cat Grant she struck me as one of the only people on this planet who could make me wet my pants in fear. And I was about to confront her. And get expelled. Possibly arrested.

I couldn't wait.

The secretary at the front desk looked up when I pushed the door open. She froze, her jaw sliding open, the phone slipping out of her hand and crashing on the desk.

I took that as my invitation into President Grant's office.

Her door was open. I walked in.

Cat Grant kept her eyes on her computer. "Ms. Teschmacher," she shouted, most likely at her assistant. "What did I say about letting people in my off--"

She froze when she actually looked up and spotted me. Her eyes widened, then narrowed. Then, so quickly that I nearly flinched, she stood, crossed the room in two steps, and slammed shut the door. The blinds came next.

I gulped, and was grateful that my hood obscured any signs of fear.

"Please. Sit." Cat Grant sat down, calmly, as calmly as she spoke.

I glanced at the plush chair, debating on whether I should remain standing. Then again, given what was at stake, I didn't want to make her mad for something so trivial. So I sat down.

"I assume that you are here to talk and not to assassinate me." Cat Grant took a sip of her coffee. "I also assume that you have already been contacted by Lex Luthor."

I almsot laughed at that one. 'Contacted.' Ha.

"Therefore, I believe it is safe of me to assume that you wish to negotiate. Perhaps to turn yourself in."

I took my hood off, shaking out my hair. "My name is Kara Danvers. And you're right: I came to talk."

Cat Grant raised an eyebrow, her lips twitching ever so slightly. I could tell that she was a woman who liked being right.

"I've seen you around campus," she stated, leaning on her elbows. "So you're Kryptonian then?"

"Obviously." I felt a brief surge of panic. "I mean, yes, and Lex's Kryptonite worked. All too well."

"So you're giving up."

"On the contrary. I'm negotiating."

"For?"

And with perfect dramatic timing, my beautiful girlfriend entered the room. "For due credit. Kara did a lot of good this semester, and I believe this proves it." Lena slammed a clipboard on President Grant's desk.

She poked at it with her pen. "And what is this, exactly?"

"It's a petition. I spent the last twenty-four hours taking the signatures of everyone that Kara has saved and everyone who feels safer with her protecting this campus. I think you'll be surprised at how many signatures there are."

Cat Grant absently fanned through the pages. "Yes, this is all very well and good, but it does nothing to excuse the fact that Ms. Danvers repeatedly broke the rules, nevermind the law."

"Kara Danvers made this campus a safer place. That's a fact. And you'll find that a high percentage of students--approximately 52.3%, excluding online students, of course--would prefer her to continue her vigilantism." Gosh, Lena was scary when she was talking statistics. It was kinda hot.

Cat Grant took off her glasses and narrowed her eyes at Lena. "And who are you, exactly?"

"I'm Lena Luther."

"Any relation to Lex?"

"His sister."

"Alright, Lena," Cat Grant said, "why do you care so much about what happens to Ms. Danvers?"

Before I could grab Lena's hand and proudly announce that we were dating, Lena said, "Kara rescued me from a robbery off campus, at Sips. I was almost shot. If she wasn't 'breaking the rules,' as you claim--"

"Not to mention the law," she cut in.

"I could be dead right now. As would many others attending this university. Kara deserves credit for that."

"I am not giving Ms. Danvers academic credit for her little nightly excursions."

"Not academic credit," I said. "I don't want to be expelled."

"Well, that I'll have to take in front of the school board." She stood once again, leaning a hip against her desk. "But I can almost guarantee that you will get a minimum of a semester's probation."

I gulped.

"Well, perhaps you would be willing to renegotiate when you hear about how Lex threatened Kara."

"Shuster University hired Lex to find out who the Vigilante was. I am glad to see that he did his job."

Lena leaned forward, both hands firmly planted on Cat Grant's desk like she was about to start doing push-ups on it. "My brother used Kryptonite to overpower Kara. He knocked her down and kept her trapped with his foot. This school," she said, jabbing at Cat Grant with her pointer finger, "essentially hired a hitman to take out a student. Surely you know that that is grounds for a lawsuit. If word got out, no one will feel safe on your campus."

At the word lawsuit, Cat Grant's eyes dart to the ground.

"Look, Ms. Grant," I spoke up. "I don't want a lawsuit anymore than you do. All I want is to graduate from Shuster U and keep the students of this campus safe. I..." I gulped again. "I know that what I did was wrong. It was technically against the school policy, and I knew that. But I also knew that I couldn't just sit back and let people get hurt. Especially when I could so easily stop it from happening. And I would much rather take the punishment for that than let people get hurt, or even killed. I'm sorry that I broke the rules--or the law, depending on how one looks at it. But I'm not not sorry that I did the right thing."

She took a moment, thinking over my words. "So these are your demands."

Lena nodded. "Kara wants to remain enrolled at Shuster U, she wants no record of this to appear on any of her official records, and she either wants cooperation with the campus police to continue keeping this campus safe, or she wants the campus police and the school board to turn a blind eye when she does so."

"And if the school does not meet these demands..."

"Then we'll sue." Lena stated.

Cat Grant's eyes darted between the two of us, once, then twice. "I see." A long pause.

My heart hammered in my chest. I longed to grab Lena's hand, but decided that that might be seen as inappropriate for the present situation.

"Well then, Ms. Danvers, Ms. Luthor, I will see what I can do."

I sighed as I stuffed my last suitcase into the trunk. "That's all of it."

Alex frowned. "I told you nothing good could come out of this vigilante thing," she said for about the fortieth time in the last two weeks. "And now I'm going to be stuck at school without a car."

I bite back my fortieth 'sorry'. If she didn't get the idea the first thirty-nine times, then that's on Alex, not me. "Only for a week. Mom and I are bringing it back, remember?"

Alex grumbled under her breath.

"A week? I have to wait a week to see my beautiful girlfriend again?"

My head snaps up at the sound of Lena's voice. I see her striding across the parking lot in that confident way of hers.

"A week is way too long a time," I say, grinning as she slides her hand into mine.

Alex quirks her eyebrows at me. "I'm going to leave you two alone." She gives me a hug. "Travel safely. I'm going to miss you."

"You too," I said.

"Maggie says goodbye. Oh, and if you hurt my car, I will hurt you." She was smiling though, and she punched me playfully on the arm before she stuck her hands into the pockets her leather jacket and marched away.

"I won't let her hurt you," Lena said.

I grinned. "Thanks, babe." I leaned toward her, planting a soft kiss on her lips.

"Oh yeah," I asked after we pulled away. "How's Lex's hand?"

I might have "accidentally" squeezed a little too hard when shaking his hand goodbye and shattered a bone or two. Oopsie.

"He'll be fine. You know I have no sympathy for him at the moment."

I felt a twinge of guilt, then pushed it away. I shouldn't blame myself. I was the one who was threatened after all.

"I'm so sorry. I hope that you guys can work things out."

Lena didn't meet my eyes. She held both of my hands in both of hers, her fingers twining in and out of mine. "I hope so too."

"I'm going to miss you," I said.

"I'm going to miss you too," she murmured. "So much. It's not going to be the same without you here."

"I'll be back next semester. Thanks to you and your amazing intimidation tactics."

Lena laughed softly. "I can't wait until then."

"Me too."

She leaned down and kissed me again. I never grew tired of the way she kissed me. How her fingertips always rested on my cheek, or the side of my neck, or how her thumb would trail my jawline. It always left me breathless.

I hugged her then. "I'll see you in a week, okay?"

"Let me know when you get home safely. And text me everyday."

I turned my head and kissed her hair. "Absolutely."

Lena left then, having to get to a class. I stood in the parking lot, gazing at the back of the dorm buildings, and feeling sad and relieved all at the same time. I was only on probation for this semester. I would be back, and there would be no record of my 'transgressions'.

But first, I had to make it through the rest of this semester, not to mention this summer. With absolutely no way to fill my time. I couldn't wait.

There wasn't any use putting off my exile any longer. I opened the car door, turning around for one last look. That was when my eyes landed on a large black van careening its way through the parking lot.

To my surprise, the van parked right in front of my car, literally preventing me from backing out. I clutched my keys tightly in my hand. Black vans never meant anything good.

The driver's door opened, and a man stepped out. His black army boots hit the pavement with a whack. He wasn't terribly tall, had dark skin and a piercing, steely gaze. My eyes landed on a badge pinned to his black uniform.

"Kara Danvers?" He asked.

I nodded. Something about this man seemed trustworthy.

"My name is Hank Henshaw. I'm the Director of an undercover government agency called the Department of Extra-Normal Operations. We have been watching you, observing everything that you have done for this university." He took a step toward me, holding out a badge. "Ms. Danvers, I have a proposition for you."

THE END

 **Hey guys! Wow, I can't believe Vigilante is over. It's so sad, but don't worry, I'll be back with a new story soon. I just wanted to thank all of my lovely readers and faithful commenters. You guys really kept me going. Thank you again! =D**

 **-PseudonymPseudonym**


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